New Brunswick Has Lowest Levels of Adult Literacy in Canada

With our province's staggering rates of functional illiteracy, you'd think more people would be jumping on the free programs available to help people upgrade their reading skills, but Deanna Allen of Laubach Literacy tells CHSJ News their literacy programs are only reaching a handful of the people that need them.

Allen says adults who can't read well often avoid situations where they'll need to read, and often develop some creative strategies to cope with their sub-par literacy skills. But she says they'd like to see the number of people enrolled in their programs double or triple. She tells CHSJ News 60% of adults in New Brunswick are functionally illiterate, compared to 40% for Canada as a whole.