this year.

A teenage student (14 yrs) who can barely read or write is suing the Victorian education department for $300,000 for failing to teach him properly. Experts have assessed his literacy and numeracy skills at five years behind his peers; he spells ‘weekend’ ‘wekenb’ and struggles to count beyond 10. He has been identified as a child who suffers a mild intellectual disability.[via news.com.au]

I find this story frustrating because it is a typical ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ scenario. In Australia (and I’m told increasingly more often in Ontario, for primary at least) it is difficult to hold students back who do not demonstrate the required level of understanding as laid out by the appropriate curriculum. It is deemed more important to maintain their self-esteem and promote them with their friends then to ensure they have learned grades particular outcomes. In most cases parents fight to have their child advanced because they do not want to admit their child has a problem, while in this case the father is arguing he asked for his son to be held back but was denied.

That all said, the most disturbing statistic of this story is the report that the Australian Bureau of Statistics has found that half of Victorian adults were unable to read or count well enough to get through daily life. Half?!? Beau has a mild intellectual disability, so his situation is understandable. What the heck is going on with the rest of Victoria? If anyone has the answer please let me know.

(I haven’t read the primary source but have located it and link to it here: Australian Bureau of Statistics: Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, Summary Results, Australia, 2006)