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c4 tribune february 10 1988 province fights illiteracy here by norah stoner mpp durham west the ontario government is assisting in the efforts to reduce the illiteracy rate in this province an estimated 250000 men and women in ontario lack core litera cy skills and its estimated one million people are functionally illiterate core literacy is considered the basic ability to read and write while functional illiteracy means the skills are less than those ex pected of a grade 9 student this year the province is spend ing more than 40 million to sup port a wide range of educational programs that have a literacy component said skills develop ment minister alvin curling in a recent speech he added many of these prog rams such a futures and ontario basic skills are delivered by the skills development ministry through the community colleges the 20 million basic skills program began a year ago it has provided almost 16000 people with the literacy and numeracy skills required to enter the work place mr curling said the many com munity and volunteer agencies that have been training people to read and write for a number of years are the first footsoldiers in the war against illiteracy these agencies continue to be indispensible partners in this bat tle and this year the province of ontario will provide 5 million in funds to community groups he said although the skills develop ment ministry has been desig nated as the central ministry in addressing the literacy chal lenge other government minis tries are also making important advances for example school boards are encouraged by the ministry of education to offer literacy prog rams with about 65 million in funds made available annually to boards offering adult basic educa tion its recognized that illiteracy is widespread amongst inmates of correctional institutions the ministry of correctional services is assessing the literacy skills of inmates and is offering training to these individuals mr curling who spent 10 years on the board of world literacy of canada believes ontarios most important resource is its people no industrial strategy or eco nomic plan can succeed if we do not have the trained manpower and womanpower to carry them out with the technological adv ances that are touching every workplace in the province peopie require everincreasing levels of skills and all of those skills are predicated on literacy with the changes that free trade may bring people require the ability to learn new jobs and learn them quickly to transport their skills from one job opportun ity to another and this can only be possible if they are fully liter ate mr curling said he added the concerted will of not only government but all the people of ontario is required to achieve our goal of full literacy expire february 29 1988 amfmslereo cassette player for digital precision at a budget price has 24 watts galleries not included rain checks will be issued il items are sold oul we reserve ihe right lo correct typographic errors radi hiaek division -f- iniektfl n canada lto available at all radio shack stores and participating dealers