Literacy is a moral imperative, reading specialist Dr. Janet Kempe told Hamilton Rotarians yesterday as she described the painful, personal struggles she has witnessed working with adults and children with difficulty reading.

Dr. Kempe is the director of The Reading Clinic but told those gathered at the weekly luncheon she had chosen to speak on literacy as a broad issue rather than focus on the clinic's programmes.

"While this has been a pressing issue for a number of years, the importance of literacy was highlighted this past week by Dale Butler and Rodney Smith addressing a forum on skills and attitudes related to the employability of our young adults," she said.

And, Dr. Kempe added, it is vital that resources dedicated to addressing and improving literacy not be reduced in the face of the predicted economic downturn.

"We have to be prepared to commit the funds to eradicating illiteracy in this community in the same way we are committed to state-of-the-art schools. And we can't cut corners," she said.

"If we move into a recession, this will pose a financial challenge, but at the same time we should not be surprised if a decline in construction and hotel work brings with it more and more adults who lack the literacy skills for other jobs in this economy, which in turn will increase the demand for skills training."

But Dr. Kempe also suggested the community should move away from looking at literacy as an economic issue.

"Although we as a community tend to focus on literacy in economic terms - as being essential for certain jobs, as being one of the keys to upward mobility - adults I have seen at the reading clinic speak in far more personal terms," she said.

"Their seeking of help - often in the area of spelling - stems from a yearning to be more connected to something they value."

Many people want to feel more connected to their children through reading, to their friends through ability to write and read letters, or, to their community through the ability to read the newspaper, she said.

"For almost all of these (people), their emotions speak to more than a pay cheque," she added. "In fact, some have done very well in jobs that require minimal reading and writing, while others are very successful as independent entrepreneurs who have others do the writing for them."

Dr. Kempe said it is difficult to assess whether the problem of literacy has worsened in Bermuda due to a lack of statistics but that may change as Government has committed to completing the UN Adult Literacy Survey next year.

"We have taken off the blinders that allowed politicians ten years ago to state unequivocally that Bermuda has no illiteracy," she said. "We do know from employers that many job applicants lack the basic reading and writing skills necessary for job entry."

And their are other alarming facts with regard to Island literacy levels, she said.

- According to the clinic's research on the prison population, 75 percent of inmates read at below high school levels and 25 percent were below 6th grade level.

- Terra Nova test results for 2000 showed that the average reading score for children in the first year of middle schools was two years behind their US counterparts.

- By the first year of senior school that gap had grown to two and half years.

There are a myriad of reasons for these problems, she said.

"First, teacher training abroad in the area of reading and spelling has been and continues to be woefully inadequate, which clearly has impacted the quality of reading instruction," said Dr. Kempe.

"Secondly, with more and more children spending more time in front of a TV or computer and not engaged in more sophisticated adult conversation, the quality of language in children appears to be declining.

"With less sophisticated language, children will have difficulty comprehending more advanced material."

At the end of the day, responsibility for literacy lies with the entire community, Dr. Kempe stressed, and the community should be aware of the extent the problems as well as efforts taken to address it.

"Each of us - every parent, every adult who is an a programme, every teacher, every child - has a right to know the outcome of programme evaluation and efforts being taken to address weaknesses," she said.

Dr. Kempe continued: "If a school is weak and doesn't improve after some effort, then action is needed. I would further argue that parents have a right to know the strengths and weaknesses of a school so they can make an informed school selection and also be encouraged to become part of the solution for the school....

"It is a moral imperative that we not sustain weak institutions or incompetent or even mediocre teachers."