We have seven million adults with no qualification whatsoever and 35 per cent of the workforce has never been offered a single day s training. We have a widening gap in qualifications, achievement, aspiration, and access to information in communications technology. We have too many people who are indifferent or hostile to the opportunities of learning. A country with an almost 100 per cent literacy rate has its problems. Naturally of a different and less menacing sort from those of a country such as this one with a true literacy rate of some 20 per cent, with too many people aspiring to learn and too few facilities for them to learn.
Fryer maintains that there is a huge gap between the educationally qualified and unqualified.
Schools are the most valued, accessible and safe places in most communities. We need their buildings, their equipment and their teachers to be used and celebrated by everyone. They need to be used not only during school hours in school terms but during all hours throughout the year. In addition to providing opportunities for children to reach their highest possible levels, we need to raise the expectations and aspirations of everyone in the community and imbue in children the attitudes and competences of learning throughout life, not only study skills, but a whole bundle of others, including critical thining and cross-curricular compentence. These should become the norm so that there is a habit of lifelong learning.