Atlanta – The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a resolution making October 18-23, 2009 as Adult Education and Family Literacy Week.  

The Technical College System of Georgia’s Office of Adult Education is joining with adult education providers in communities throughout Georgia to celebrate the week.  The state and local programs collaborate year-round to raise public awareness of adult education and family literacy, assist adult learners in need of literacy services, and support increased public access to adult education and family literacy programs.

“Last year, more than 95,000 Georgians participated in an adult education program, and 20,000 of those men and women improved their futures and enhanced their earning potential by obtaining their GED,” said Dr. Josephine Reed-Taylor, the TCSG’s assistant commissioner for adult education. “While we take great pride in those successes, the numbers still seem small when there are more than 1.24 million adults in our state who are without a high school or GED diploma.”

Reed-Taylor said that Congress’ designation of Adult Education and Family Literacy Week emphasizes just how important adult learning is to changing lives and improving communities.  It also sheds light on the issues that confront those million-plus Georgians who, for whatever reason, failed to achieve a secondary education credential:

They’ll earn an average of almost $9,000 less annually than a person with a GED or high school diploma.  

Their chances of going to prison are higher.
 
They are more likely to experience poor health, higher infant mortality rates and have trouble communicating with their healthcare providers and navigating the health care and insurance systems.

They’ll have problems understanding and managing basic finances and have problems with supporting their families, including providing for their children who’ll miss out on basic health care and educational services.

They’ll suffer from lower self-esteem.

The Technical College System of Georgia’s adult education programs work to change those odds for the better by serving adults, ages16 or older, who are functionally below the high school completion level.  The adult education programs are accessible in communities throughout the state, with emphasis on instruction in reading, numeracy, and English language learning.  Adult educators work with each student to help develop the skills necessary to obtain a job and to complete a General Educational Development (GED) test, and then transfer on to post-secondary education. 

Family literacy programs are also available to serve both parents and their young children.  The adults learn basic academics, English as a second language, and parenting skills while their children are provided with high quality preschool programming.  These programs focus on breaking family cycles of low literacy, low education and poverty.

In addition to its adult education services, the TCSG Office of Adult Education oversees the Certified Literate Community Program (CLCP), an adult education network in 77 Georgia counties and two cities.  The local CLCP links together businesses, churches, volunteers, social services, local governments, schools, media and others in a coordinated effort to reach, influence and support those adults who want to participate in adult education programs.

For more information about all of Georgia’s statewide adult education programs, contact the state Office of Adult Education at 404-679-1625, or learn more online at http://www.tcsg.edu/adult_literacy.php.

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