Quebec Literacy Working Group VOX Newsletter

What's Inside

"the literacy resource for adult education teachers"

QLWG Skills for Life

Traveling resource trunks

Literacy, ESL or both?

QELA to get core funding

Have your say

QLWG and SARCA

It's a fact

Only one in eight adults (12%) over age 65 has adequate health literacy skills.

This is particularly significant in light of the fact that seniors are more likely to suffer ill health. Indeed, nine in ten seniors take at least one medication, and many take several at the same time.”

State of Learning in Canada; No Time for Complacency/ Report on Learning in Canada 2007 (continued on page 3)

QLWG Contact Details

Quebec Literacy Working Group
Patti Moore, Coordinator
Eastern Quebec Learning Centre
3005 William Stuart
Sainte-Foy (Québec) G1W 1V4

Tel: (418) 651-3022
Fax: (418) 651-3025
Email: moorep@CQSB.qc.ca
Web: www.qela.qc.ca

  

QLWG Celebrates 30 Years!

celebration representation

The Quebec Literacy Working Group (QLWG) just turned 30!

QLWG was created in 1978 to establish adult literacy programs within the adult education sector of the English school boards in the province. We are proud to have provided ongoing adult literacy instruction in our local school boards for adults with low literacy skills for the past three decades.

The members of QLWG were responsible for creating the first communitybased literacy groups in the province in the late seventies. To this day, local reading councils across Quebec provide one-on-one instruction for adults who are not ready or unable to enter a regular literacy class. Many reading councils also work closely with school boards in providing individual tutoring for low literacy adults enrolled in our centres. In partnership with the 11 existing reading councils across Quebec, QLWG helped create the Quebec English Literacy Alliance (QELA) in 1997(for more on QELA, see page 3).

But What Importance, Adult Literacy?

While we originally intended to commemorate our 30 years of existence with slightly more fanfare, our celebration has instead been a quiet one: in September 2006 the federal government announced that it was cutting funding for adult literacy programs across Canada. As QLWG depended entirely on federal funding, our activities were at a standstill for most of 2006-2007. The federal government has since reintroduced a new funding program, but the funding continues to be project-based and involves even more paperwork than before. In addition, there is no certainty that the funding will continue long-term. In the meantime, 49% of Quebecers do not meet required reading levels - the literacy skills of parents directly affect their family’s income, health and overall quality of life. We remain hopeful that the government is listening...

QLWG’s Working for You:

A teacher in a classroom

The QLWG Skills for Life Units

Over the past several months, teams in English school boards across the province have been hired to field-test the QLWG Skills for Life distance education units. Each team includes a local animator who is responsible for carrying out the project within their board, a teacher who is responsible for field-testing the units, and students who are willing to help us test the units.

The QLWG Skills for Life distance education units will provide school boards that do not have sufficient numbers to form an adult literacy class with a new option for offering training to adults with low literacy skills. It will also enable adults who cannot come to a regular literacy class with a choice they have never had before.

(continued on page 2)