European School Heads Association, ESHA
Position Paper on Basic skills in reading, writing, mathematics and science
Basic skills for people to help their everyday life are reading, writing and maths. Also listening and talking are important basic skills.
European School Heads Association ESHA advocates that teaching resources in all countries should be designed so that they support highly successful programmes in learning reading, writing, maths and science.
All reading programmes should ensure the progression to build fluent and motivated readers.
For this purpose all schools should also equip their pupils with all the skills they need to succeed, including comprehension, spelling, handwriting and basic grammar.
All schools should also have such primary maths programmes that build and develop all the key skills needed to be successful in maths and science. For this purpose schools in all countries should find their resources enjoyable, easy to use and highly effective.
ESHA wants to point out the fact that literacy is an important skill for any facet of life. It is more than only picking words on a text, but a process of critical thinking involving evaluating ideas and applying them to everyday life situations. This includes modern reading strategies, textual comprehension and response techniques.
ESHA believes that one of the most important tasks schools have is give all children basic literacy skills so that they can develop analytical and critical skills.
Basic reading skills include language, concentration, visual processing, auditory processing, memory and reasoning. These skills are needed to be practiced and applied in order for a person to become a proficient reader.
ESHA believes that improving literacy and numeracy skills can give children the confidence they need in all communication.
Reading, writing maths and science go together. Noticing things and shapes come naturally to children, so the school can use child´s interest in these activities to help maths and science.
Also maths and science skills can be developed through stories, songs, games and imaginative play. Even many other everyday tasks can be used in a creative way to give children the chance to learn new maths and science skills.
ESHA European School Heads Association
P.O. Box 1003, 3500 BA UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS Internet www.esha.org There are many opportunities to learn about maths through everyday activities. ESHA believes schools could exploit these resources better.
ESHA wants schools in all countries to improve their methods of teaching literacy, numeracy and science. If schools use international contacts and results of research there is plenty of useful help available. There are also lots of ways to improve the ICT skills for the same purpose.
ESHA underlines that having the right skills in reading, writing, maths and science is now more important than ever before. People in all countries need these skills and in less than ten years there will be very few jobs that do not require these skills at all.
ESHA believes that improving basic skills can open up many new opportunities and help people to decide what´s right for them.
Research predicts that in the future there will be fewer opportunities in all walks of life for people lacking basic skills in reading, writing, maths and science, which means that these skills are likely to become more and more important as time goes on.
ESHA recognizes: - Acquisition of language from 0 – 3 years is a vital component for wider literacy skills. - Early learning is often based on play. - Cursive handwriting develops hand/ eye coordination skills. - New move in writing towards digital language. - Basic maths skills are closely related to skills needed in life.
ESHA advocates that: - Communicating effectively using high order skills will enable conflicts to be resolved no matter the situation (from day to day to world issues). - Maths and science are also seen as creative subjects - Children need basic maths skills to work out totals and change in shops etc., as adults need understanding of banking and accounts.
ESHA is committed to: - Term literacy (including reading, writing, talking and listening) is preferred as an all- encompassing term. - Some pupils with special needs may not be able to talk or write but in fact have very good literacy skills. - Ability to read gives independence: People who cannot read / interpret symbols are at a great disadvantage. - Creative aspects are important but it is recognized that pupils have different learning styles. - Problem solving skills are important, can be compared to basic skills.
ESHA European School Heads Association
P.O. Box 1003, 3500 BA UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS Internet www.esha.org