“The curriculum must not be a closed book at 11” says the British Assistive Technology Association (BATA)
21/12/2010
Ref: 101221IS
“The curriculum must not be a closed book at 11” says the British Assistive Technology Association (BATA) following Education Secretary Michael Gove’s acknowledgement on the BBC Today Programme that 9% of boys were reaching secondary schools at 11 with a reading age of 7 or less.
Responding to a BBC study of DfE statistics on literacy levels of pupils leaving primary school, the Education Secretary said: “Ultimately, if you do not get a child reading by the time that they leave primary school, when they arrive at secondary school, the curriculum is just a closed book to them, literally”.
“In 2011 no learner should need to experience the curriculum as a closed book”, said Ian Litterick, BATA’s literacy spokesperson. “Assistive Technology allows students to listen to text books that they cannot read by traditional means. As the best schools are already aware, it gives independence, stops non-reading pupils falling inexorably behind and lessens reliance on teaching assistants. In addition, because pupils who use Text-to-Speech synthesis see and hear many more words, their literacy skills also improve.”
It is not enough to repeat at Secondary School the literacy teaching which has so far failed, and which often entails students missing ordinary lessons. A changed approach must allow students to access the curriculum as they are learning, particularly if, as announced by the government, they will be staying in education until 19. Assistive Technology can help overcome the Bart Simpson effect of taking children with difficulties out of class. “Let me get this straight. We're behind the rest of our class and we're going to catch up to them by going slower than they are?”
Since 1994 there has also been a good evidence base for using Assistive Technology, particularly Text-to-Speech, as part of the armory of tools used in primary schools to teach literacy. AT should be an integral part of systematic synthetic phonics teaching for pupils who have any difficulties at all with learning to decode written words.
“Part of the Pupil Premium must be devoted to Assistive Technology”, says BATA, “as A.T. offers terrific Value for Money in overcoming the disadvantages of those who are socially or digitally excluded.”
BATA Chairman Martin Littler has also sent an open letter to Michael Gove pointing out the risk that Children with significant Special Needs need to have funds specifically allocated to them. Otherwise their relative position deteriorates as the majority improve, particularly when the children with special needs are in mainstream schooling and so competing for funds within the school.
Notes for Editors
1) The British Assistive Technology Association (BATA) (www.bataonline.org) exists to promote the rights and interests of those needing Assistive Technology. Members include users, carers, professionals, charities, local authorities, schools, colleges, universities and companies working in this field.
2) Assistive Technology is technology, often based on ICT, that helps to overcome disabilities or difficulties in everyday life. The most common Assistive Technology for those with reading impairments is Text-to-Speech synthesis (TTS), where the computer reads aloud from electronic text, so assisting with both decoding and comprehension. Priced from Free upwards TTS and other literacy support software offers a range of other tools to help with reading, writing, literacy learning and curriculum study.
3) Literacy support including TTS was included as standard software in every computer that was provided under the recently completed Home Access scheme to provide computers and internet access to learners on low incomes, to overcome “digital exclusion”. The Department for Education under the coalition has not yet announced how the Home Access scheme is to be followed up.
4) David Cameron has announced the internet entrepreneur, Martha Lane Fox, as the UK Digital Champion and so supports the Race Online 2012 campaign to encourage people to get online as a means of overcoming digital exclusion.
5) The Accessible Resources Pilot (http://www.altformat.org/mytextbook/) had funding from the then DCSF to pilot the conversion of textbooks into accessible electronic formats in 2009/10 in a small number of schools. The Department for Education under the coalition has not yet announced how this is to be followed up.
6) Textbooks should be available in electronic format as a matter of course. They are then automatically available to Reading Impaired children, whether visually impaired, dyslexic, having mobility problems or coming to English as a second language. Electronic books are increasingly needed by children with no reading difficulty at all who will be expecting to read on electronic devices. In the USA publishers must make electronic texts of newly published textbooks available for the use of students with reading impairments under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”), 2004.
7) BATA council member Ian Litterick is founder and Executive Chairman of iansyst Ltd an Assistive Technology vendor (www.iansyst.co.uk) which has been running the website www.dyslexic.com on technology tools for dyslexia since 1996. He is also a member of the British Dyslexia Association’s New Technologies Committee (http://www.bdatech.org/) and a member of the committee of the Right to Read Campaign (www.rnib.org.uk/righttoread).