Literacy and Basic Education

One in eight adults in Germany cannot read and write sufficiently. The 2018 LEO study by the University of Hamburg states that 6.2 million German-speaking adults aged 18-64 live with low literacy, i.e. their level of written language skills is below text level. Work instructions, safety instructions, instruction leaflets, timetables are major hurdles for these people.

If adults cannot read and write sufficiently, this has an impact on many areas of life, e.g. in the family, at work, when dealing with authorities and in leisure activities.

On 6 August 2024, the Senate of Berlin adopted the Berlin State Concept for Literacy and Basic Education with the approval of the Council of Mayors.

In order to reduce low literacy among adults, the Senate of Berlin had already pursued three main goals with the Senate Strategy for Literacy and Basic Education – Promoting Basic Education – Strengthening Participation (2015 to 2018): expanding learning opportunities, promoting the institutional competence of public institutions with regard to the target group and raising public awareness of the issue of “low literacy among adults”.

In an externally commissioned stocktaking by k.o.s GmbH in 2020, the successful development and expansion of the field of basic education as part of the Senate strategy was recognised. In addition, recommendations for further development were made, which have now been incorporated into the present state concept for literacy and basic education.

As part of the state concept, existing structures in the field of literacy and basic education will be strengthened and new structures established. In order to achieve this, two central goals are at the forefront: the effective anchoring of basic education in the districts and the strengthening of the district alpha alliances as well as the interlinking of labour market support and basic education so that people with low literacy levels can be better reached and referred to needs-based services.

The state concept was developed in a participatory process. The Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family was supported by Ramboll Management Consulting GmbH in organising workshops and interviews with stakeholders as well as in developing the concept paper

Numerous stakeholders with their different perspectives and experiences are also involved in the implementation of the state concept, e.g. administrative decision-makers, specialist agencies, stakeholders with practical experience and/or access to the target group, basic education specialists, people who consider themselves jointly responsible for the target group due to their work, employment agencies and job centres and academic staff from colleges and universities.

Professional exchange, networking and cooperation between stakeholders will lead to new offers for counselling, support and learning that will enrich the basic education landscape in Berlin. This will enable people who have major problems with reading, writing, maths, using digital services or in other areas of their everyday lives to participate more fully in society.

The Berlin state concept for literacy and basic education will soon be available for download here.

The Contact Point Basic Education was established in autumn 2012 as the coordination point for literacy and basic education of the Land of Berlin at the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family. It serves as an information centre for administrations, providers and social partners and offers counselling for interested parties and those affected. It organises and coordinates activities on the topic of literacy and basic education in Berlin and looks after the network partners of the Round Table from numerous Berlin facilities and institutions.

In 2013, the Berlin Round Table on Literacy and Basic Education resumed its activities. It was established by the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family and has since developed into a Berlin-wide network for literacy and basic education.

Participants include administrations, adult education centres, providers of literacy services and basic education measures as well as institutions and associations from business and society, the Federal Employment Agency and the German Federation of Trade Unions. The Round Table serves to pass on information, meets for conferences, which in particular provide an opportunity for professional exchange, and advises the Senate Department on the implementation of its measures.

The Round Table is also represented by a member in the Adult Education Advisory Board according to the Berlin Adult Education Act.

A lot of information is available on the website of the Basic Education Centre

• Berlin’s course and counselling offers for low-literate adults can be found in a directory of offers. The offers can be filtered by category and by Berlin districts.
• The information and material collection provides information, materials and specialist literature for those affected, course instructors and interested parties.
• Under News you will find information on the topic of literacy and basic education, also beyond Berlin’s city limits.
• Dates, training courses, further training for course leaders, workshops and specialist events in Berlin and nationwide are announced under the heading Dates.
• Job offers in the field of basic education in Berlin are published in the job exchange. Course instructors can also be listed in the job exchange if they are looking for a job.

In the 2014 – 2020 funding period of the European Social Fund (ESF), the state of Berlin established a funding programme for literacy and basic education for the first time.

This funding instrument will be significantly expanded within the framework of the Berlin ESF PLUS programme 2021-2027 and includes five funding priorities:

A: Basic education offers
Educational offers for low-literate adults to improve their basic skills, e.g. in the areas of family / parental work / parental education, health, finances and household, work, digitalisation, political participation and basic political education, equal rights and equal opportunities.

B: Learning houses at VHS
In learning houses at adult education centres in Berlin, full-time courses are held which are intended to enable participants to connect to gainful employment, to vocational preparation measures or to courses to catch up on school-leaving qualifications.

C: Development of a national programme “Parents’ Groups for All
In a low-threshold and participatory offer at schools, the support competence of parents is strengthened by teaching basic skills and thus increasing the educational participation of their children. (Implementation by the Berlin Adult Education Centres)

D: Outreach political (basic) education work
Projects to promote political participation. This funding priority is planned and supervised by the Berlin State Agency for Civic Education.

E: Sensitisation of multipliers
Projects for the training of multipliers or key persons who, after the training, can appropriately address low-literate persons, support and competently advise them and refer them to a learning offer, in particular also employees in offices and authorities close to the citizens.

An overview lists the projects with contact details that are currently being supported with ESF funding and funding from the state budget.

As a service provider, Investitionsbank Berlin implements ESF funding in the Land of Berlin together with the specialist offices in the Senate administrations.

The “Berlin Basic Training for Course Leaders in Literacy and Basic Education” was developed by experienced practitioners on behalf of the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family and has been offered in Berlin in an annual cycle since autumn 2017. It is aimed at course instructors who work in the field of literacy and basic education for German-speaking adults and at interested persons who intend to take up such work.

Concept with a holistic learning approach

The concept of the further training follows a holistic learning approach by enabling the course leaders to take into account the individual life situations and learning biographies of the course participants in their support. In addition, possible connections to reading and spelling difficulties in adults are addressed.

Planning and implementing further training

The concept can be used by organisers of qualification measures for adult education to plan and implement further training aimed at basic qualification of course leaders for work in literacy and basic education of German-speaking adults. However, parts of the concept can also be used for a further training course.

• The training concept will be updated soon, here still under the former title “Further training of course leaders in offers for German-speaking functional illiterates and adults with reading and spelling difficulties”.

Registration for participation

The annual training programme takes place in Berlin from October of one year to June of the following year over eight seminar weekends (Friday afternoons and Saturdays). Binding registration must be made using a specified form, taking into account the registration deadline.

The specific dates of the next cycle, the registration period and the prescribed form will be announced in the spring before the start of the cycle.

After the registration deadline and during an ongoing course, interested persons can be added to the waiting list. The form for entering the waiting list is included in this information letter.

In recent years, alpha alliances have been founded in all Berlin districts.

They serve the local networking of counselling centres, citizen-oriented offices and authorities as well as institutions with citizen contacts at the district level. They contribute to raising awareness of the topic of “low literacy among adults” and to breaking down access barriers to counselling and information services for the target group.

Since 2017, the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family has been funding the establishment and networking activities of the alliances. The Grund-Bildungs-Zentrum Berlin advises and accompanies the Alpha alliances at the professional level and organises the exchange of expertise between their coordinating offices.

Having difficulties with writing is still a taboo in Germany. In order to reach those affected and their environment on the one hand, but also to raise public awareness of the problem, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has launched the nationwide information campaign Reading & Writing – My Key to the World.