At the end of 2024, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published the results of a large-scale PIAAC study, an international adult literacy test. The study involved more than 150,000 people from 31 countries, and the sample was enough to draw alarming conclusions about literacy rates around the world. What did the study show and why do its results make you think?
What is PIAAC and why do I need it?
While the PISA test assesses the literacy of adolescents, the PIAAC focuses on adults. Its goal is to find out how well people apply reading, writing, and math skills in everyday life. It is important not only to have basic knowledge, but to be able to use it in practice: find the necessary information in the text, calculate the amount of building materials or plot a route taking into account restrictions.
Testing was carried out in digital format and included three main blocks:
- Reading literacy is the ability to understand a text and extract key information from it,
- Mathematical literacy – working with numbers and the ability to perform calculations,
- Problem solving is the ability to think logically and analyze data.
In addition, participants were asked questions about their age, education, occupation, and even their level of life satisfaction.
What conclusions did the experts make?
The results were mixed.
- In a number of countries, adults maintain high levels of literacy: Finland, Japan, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands are among the leaders.
- Several other countries, including Canada, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, performed above the OECD average.
- However, the situation is not so rosy in all countries. As it turned out, many adults face difficulties even when performing basic tasks that require minimal literacy!
Research shows that the skill of reading and analyzing information, which a person possesses in youth, can weaken over time if it is not used. Even in the most developed countries, not all adults are confident in reading, counting and analyzing information.
The researchers identified five levels of literacy, and the vast majority of participants were stuck somewhere in between. A quarter of adults in OECD countries fall short of basic tasks:
- 26% have low reading literacy – they can understand individual sentences, but no more,
- 25% are bad at counting – they are able to add numbers, but cannot cope with elementary calculations,
- 29% have difficulties with logical tasks - it is difficult for them to adapt to new conditions.
But people with the maximum level of literacy are only about 1%, that is, there are very few people who really know how to analyze complex information (this is good news).
Why do some do better and others worse?
The study identified several factors that affect skill levels:
- Age – young test participants on average showed better results, but 55-65-year-olds coped noticeably worse.
- Education – the higher the level of education, the higher the scores, with Finnish school graduates outperforming college graduates in a number of other countries in terms of literacy.
- Field of study — people with a technical or natural science (STEM) education on average show better results: the gap between them and the humanities reaches 28 points in mathematics and 10 points in problem solving.
- Origin – Immigrants and children of immigrants are more likely to have difficulty with testing, especially in countries where the language is very different from their native language (in general, logical and expected).
- Parents' education – people whose parents received higher education are 50 points (!) ahead of those whose parents had only basic education.
Do people really lose their reading and numeracy skills?
Comparing the latest results with the first cycle of the PIAAC study, which was conducted in 2011, scientists came to a disappointing conclusion: in most countries, the level of adult literacy has decreased:
- Reading literacy showed a marked drop in 11 countries; a particularly strong decrease was recorded in Poland (-31 points), Lithuania (-28), South Korea (-23) and New Zealand (-21),
- Mathematical literacy has deteriorated in 7 countries; the most significant decrease is again observed in Lithuania (-22 points) and Poland (-21 points).
Experts explain this trend by the fact that adults are less likely to face tasks that require in-depth analysis of information. Modern technologies have changed habits: people are increasingly consuming short texts — social networks, instant messengers, news headlines — paying less attention to complex reading and comprehension of data. As a result, skills that are not used are gradually weakened.
And now what? Does AI still do a better job?
Indeed, OECD researchers noted an interesting fact: in 2022, generative artificial intelligence (GII) was able to successfully solve 80% of reading literacy tasks. In reality, few people have reached such a level. With the development of technology, AI will soon score 500 points out of 500, that is, it will complete all tasks to the maximum.
But does this mean that human skills are no longer important? The OECD believes not. Even if AI takes over the intellectual work, literacy will remain a key skill. People with high literacy rates are more likely to be successful — they earn more, are healthier, and generally feel happier. Text comprehension and logical thinking are the basis for mastering any knowledge, and without them, even the most powerful technologies will not help.
In addition, there is one nuance: AI can brilliantly cope with complex tasks, but at the same time it often makes mistakes in elementary things. Scientists note that artificial intelligence can solve advanced tasks, but at the same time do not understand the basic concepts, and this task is still being solved.
