Farming special - Day 4: ‘Five years ago I could barely read or write’
For most of his life, 57-year-old Tony says he managed to get through without letting anyone know how poor his literacy skills were.
“I bluffed my way through a lot of things, and my wife Deirdre helped me a lot,” he recalls of his life before going back to classes.
“I was a painter-decorator, and then when there was a slump in the 1980s, I started driving a taxi,” he said. Originally from Blackpool in Cork city, and now living in Killeagh near Youghal, it was only when he got to secondary school that he really started to learn anything. But he only got as far as Inter Cert level, the precursor to today’s Junior Certificate.
“I really came out of school not knowing how to read or write; it wasn’t until I was in my early 50s that I realised I needed to something about it,” he explains.
When another slump arrived in 2007, he decided to take up a computer course in Youghal, where the instructors suggested he start at the very beginning. After a year of one-to-one teaching, he advanced to classes with the VEC (now Cork Education and Training Board) adult education service in Youghal, with people of all ages and backgrounds.
“I had six hours a week of communications and maths, the rest of the class were from all walks of life. There was a couple of foreigners learning English, and people older than me brushing up on their own reading and writing,” he said.
He has now been attending classes for over five years and is currently taking a course at level 4 on the qualifications framework. Students at this level have the kind of independent learning skills needed for Leaving Certificate and it can be a stepping-stone to work or more education for many people.
But for Tony, the benefits of his return to education go far beyond the everyday uses he now puts his new skills to.
“It’s the confidence it gave me to be able to stand up and say I have a problem, and there’s no shame in it. A lot of people would pigeon-hole you years ago if you couldn’t read or write.
“If you said you couldn’t understand computers, they wouldn’t mind, but they’d look at you stupid if you couldn’t read. I think attitudes are changing because people are talking about it more,” he said.
He is at the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) stand at the Ploughing Championships this week, explaining the benefits and supports of basic education services for adults.
“I’m a NALA delegate for students in east Cork, telling people that I’d have been the fella hiding down the back of the class before. “But a few times a year now, I’m the one up the front giving workshops in maths for other adults who struggle with it,” he said.
The ploughing event coincides with National Adult Literacy Awareness week, and NALA (1800 20 20 65 or freetext 50050) has details of where people can find their nearest literacy service or online education courses. Education and Training Boards (ETBs) around the country have 55,000 people attending literacy and numeracy courses nationwide.
