European Literacy Policy Network (ELINET) in Vienna
20 February 2014
80 European organisations launch the European Literacy Policy Network ELINET in Vienna
From the 24th until the 27th of February 2014, 80 organisations from 28 countries mark the start of the European Literacy Policy Network (ELINET) in Vienna, Austria. One in five European 15 year olds, as well as nearly 75 million adults, lack basic reading and writing skills, which makes it hard for them to get a job, and increases their risk of poverty and social exclusion. H.R.H. Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands will launch the network to prevent and reduce illiteracy in Europe. Furthermore, Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth will elucidate this major new step in a special video message.
In 2011 the European Commission established a High Level Group of experts in the field of literacy. This group examined how to support literacy throughout lifelong learning, identified common success factors of literacy programmes and policy initiatives, and came up with proposals for improving literacy. Following the work of the Group, the European Commission initiated a network to raise awareness, gather and analyse policy information, and exchange policy approaches, good practices, and initiatives to reduce the number of children, young people and adults with low literacy skills by 2020.
The launch of the network is organized by the network´s Coordinator, the University of Cologne (Prof. Dr. Christine Garbe, Martin Gross), in cooperation with the Austrian Book Club in Vienna. The official opening will be at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research.
The 80 partner organisations from 28 countries (of which 24 are EU Member States) consist of existing national literacy associations and foundations, policymakers, literacy centres, and other stakeholder groups working in the field.
Contact
To learn more about the European Literacy Network, please contact:
Prof. Dr. Christine Garbe, University of Cologne, Germany
+49-221-7895-5588 or +49-170-4086-321, christine.garbe@uni-koeln.de.
For information on the Austrian Book Club, please contact:
Henrike Blum: +43-1-505-17-54-36 or 0680-133-95-26, henrike.blum@buchklub.at
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