Malta at literacy research meeting

Literacy is a concern not only of developing countries but also of many countries in Europe, where an increasing proportion of the population lacks the basic competencies to tackle the demands of everyday life.

Prof. Charles L. Mifsud, director of the University of Malta's literacy centre, addressed a European literacy research meeting held by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) in Hamburg, last month.

Prof. Mifsud spoke about the research and development initiatives and projects of the University's literacy centre in collaboration with various Maltese, European and international partners. The centre is mainly involved in the promotion of multiple literacies through both e- and mobile learning, and its extensive research profile was presented and this established a strong basis for future research collaboration with a number of key European institutions in the area of literacy.

Prof. Mifsud also discussed possible avenues of collaboration with leading officials from UNESCO and the OECD.

The UIL is co-ordinating one of UNESCO's key education initiative the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE), and it is expected that lessons drawn from this meeting could also be fed back to the series of LIFE activities. A support research strategy was discussed and developed. The meeting will result in a report on the trends and policy implications for literacy as well as further development of UIL's planned database for dissemination of research findings.

The meeting involved representatives from key education and research institutes who are engaged in literacy research. Besides sharing the results of the latest research studies from the various countries, a session was also devoted to discussing the policy and programme implications of such results.