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• Aspects
• Family
• Child care
• In study and work
  • Literacy
    • Trend: overall
    • Table: summary (%)
    • Table: summary (n)
    • Trend: remoteness (%)
  • Numeracy
  • High school completion
  • In school and work
  • Children's experience
• Community
• Health
• Crime and safety
• Economic security
• Demographics
• Age groups
• Essays
• Glossary

What does this mean?

In Kids Stats literacy refers to the ability of children and young people to read, write, speak and listen to language in a way that allows them to communicate with others and make sense of the world.

Why is it important to monitor?

Literacy, like numeracy, provides key skills to enable children and young people to be successful at school and life beyond it. Literacy is a prerequisite for success in a changing society where people need to be ready to adapt to new jobs, new career pathways and new technologies.

Research by the Australian Council for Educational Research found that poor literacy and numeracy skills at school were associated with:

• early school leaving, and 
• a greater likelihood of being out of work and experiencing sustained periods of unemployment at age 19 [1].

The study concluded that:
While raising levels of literacy and numeracy will not necessarily guarantee young people well-paid jobs, it will improve their chances of completing school and accessing a wider range of post-compulsory pathways, which, in the longer term, may help young people establish more secure livelihoods [2].

Indicator 

The indicator used in Kids Stats to monitor literacy is:

The number of students in government schools who achieve minimum acceptable standards of literacy in Year 5 as a proportion of all Year 5 students.

In NSW, Year 5 students participate in the Basic Skills Test, which assesses literacy and numeracy. Students achieving Band 3 or above on these tests have demonstrated the minimum acceptable standard in literacy and numeracy. Students achieving Band 1 or 2 may have difficulty making sufficient progress at school. Currently data can only be reported for students attending government schools.

Main findings

• The proportion of Year 5 students achieving minimum acceptable standard of literacy has shown little change over the period 1996 to 2006.
• Females demonstrated a higher minimum acceptable standard of literacy than males (a difference of 4.3 percentage points in 2006).
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have more difficulty. In comparison with non Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, a smaller proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students achieved minimum acceptable standards of literacy. This difference is consistent across the years, but appears to be decreasing.
• Geographic location is a factor. A consistently smaller proportion of students attending schools in remote and very remote areas achieved minimum acceptable standards of literacy, compared with more accessible areas.

Notes:
[1] Lamb, S. (1997). School Achievement and Initial Education and Labour Market Outcomes. Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth. Research Report 4, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne.
[2] Ibid.

For details of the references and to find out more about the data follow the link to Glossary and further information.