Pan-Canadian Interactive Literacy Forum
Literacy is a fundamental and life long skill. The Government of Alberta and other provincial and territorial governments across Canada identified the importance of literacy skills to help all citizens participate fully in society. To address this priority, Ministers of Education, through the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, partnered to host the Pan-Canadian Interactive Literacy Forum. The forum took place on April 14-15, 2008 and was followed by a provincial literacy conference in Edmonton on April 16.
During the forum, participants had opportunities to provide input into what Albertans would like to include in a framework to improve literacy in the province. This input has been summarized into a "Summary of Input on a Literacy Framework for Alberta (Draft)" document.
The comments and suggestions identified a number of key actions that would improve adult literacy and foundational learning in Alberta. These are:
- Align literacy and other foundational learning—Expand collaborative delivery of literacy and foundational learning programs and services through building on successful Community Adult Learning Centre models, defining core literacy programs and services, and contributing to institutional access plans.
- Common assessment, standards and benchmarks—Develop common assessment, standards and benchmarks to facilitate pathways for learners from community learning to comprehensive community institution programming.
- Adult literacy communications plan—Develop and implement a plan to raise public, provider and potential learners' awareness of the importance of literacy at all levels as well as highlight the available programs and services.
- Human resources strategy—Work with community learning and literacy programs to develop a specific community learning and literacy workforce strategy. (The strategy could build upon the recently released Workforce Strategy for Alberta's Non-profit and Voluntary Sector.)
These actions were incorporated into a draft provincial literacy framework. If you were unable to attend the Forum, there is still an opportunity to provide input into the draft framework. We invite you to submit your comments to Community.Programs@learning.gov.ab.ca.
