Education Union calls on government to invest after poor literacy report

The Saving Money by Spending: Solving Illiteracy in Australia report by the Code REaD Dyslexia Network stated that Tasmania is enrolling the highest proportion of disadvantaged students in the country, with 38 per cent of them facing "significant challenges".

As well, Tasmania had the highest proportion of 15-74-year-olds reading at a level two or below, with 50 per cent of the state's population having inadequate reading skills for their daily life needs.

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AEU Tasmania President David Genford said this was "extremely alarming" and highlighted the need for urgent investment in Tasmania's schools.

"We can't stand by and see the levels of illiteracy in our society and expect things to get better without funding," Mr Genford said.

"Every day we hear stories of students not getting access to the quality education they deserve, because the resources in schools just aren't there. That's not good enough.

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"We don't [want to] see another generation of students miss out on the funding that they need."

The report comes on the back of data released by the Department for Education, Children and Young People in July, which showed close to one in five Tasmanian students from prep to year 10 are not meeting set literacy and numeracy standards.

"I read reports like this almost every week at the moment," Mr Genford said.

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"We are calling on the state and federal governments to commit to funding public schools in Tasmania at 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard to ensure no student falls through the cracks."

The Resource Standard is an estimate of how much total public funding a school needs to meet its students' educational needs - the AEU said Tasmanian students need "an additional $118 million per year" to meet the minimum.

"I think we are letting people down when we don't make sure that they are fully functional in society," Mr Genford said.

The government was contacted for comment but was unable to meet the deadline, however, in June this year Minister for Education Roger Jaensch said improving adult literacy was a priority for the government.

"Supporting adult Tasmanians with these skills continues to strengthen the social and economic wellbeing of our state," Mr Jaensch said at the time.

"[We] promote the importance of growing reading, writing and maths skills of adults for everyday life in their workplaces, families and communities."

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