REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE INAUGURAL NATIONAL ADULT LITERACY AGENCY ACE AWARDS
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE INAUGURAL NATIONAL ADULT LITERACY AGENCY ADULTS CONTINUING EDUCATION (ACE) AWARDS
Cuireann sé áthas orm bheith anseo libh inniu agus tá mé thar a bheith buíoch daoibh as an chuireadh a thug sibh dom.
It is a real privilege to be here this evening at this wonderful celebration of achievement. My thanks to Inez Bailey, Director of the National Adult Literacy Agency, for inviting me to be a part of this great occasion – the presentation of the inaugural Adults Continuing Education Awards. My thanks also to Ted McGovern, Chief Executive Officer of the EBS Building Society, for supporting this important event.
We are here this evening to celebrate the courage of those who choose to learn rather than fear. It is no secret that I am passionate about education and am proud to be the patron of NALA, especially as it is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It is, perhaps, a happy coincidence that this is also the European Year of Citizenship through Education. Of all the benefits to be gained by people going back to education, achievement of literacy and numeracy has the most profoundly positive effects, allowing people to participate fully in life. No longer excluded from a whole world of experience and wonder which can be accessed through reading, people can take much greater control of their lives and their environment. Confidence levels soar, ambition soars, talents once overwhelmed by fear reveal themselves, skills once thought of as beyond reach grow and blossom, transforming the person into a fuller and more fulfilled human being.
There are so many reasons why so many people end up with problems reading and writing. Those problems are more often than not rooted in childhood and in things over which the child had no control. Now in adulthood he or she discovers just how difficult life can be with a patchy education and they wonder what the future holds. Your stories tell them very powerfully that the future does not have to be a repeat of the past - that there are doors that open to a better future if they only step into the welcoming world of adult education. It is waiting for them any time they are ready.
I have met many people whose lives have changed dramatically once they decided to do something about the patchiness of their education. One woman told me she had always thought she must be stupid because she could not read or write until she was in her forties. Today she is a graduate of Trinity College with two degrees to her name. A father of three children told me how he hated the coffee break at work and avoided it because people were talking about what was in the papers. So he got the name of being odd and unfriendly when he yearned for company but was embarrassed by his inability to read properly. He eventually decided to do something about it and so by the time I met him he was writing poetry and full of joy and confidence in life.
Most of us will never win the Lotto though we may fantasise about the choices we would have if we had a million euro. Education is our next gamble and unlike the Lotto it makes everyone a winner. It gives us self-esteem, certificates that tell of our ability and commitment, it gives us access to jobs and to a more rounded participation in every aspect of life. It gives us the chance to read bedtime stories to our children, to help them with their homework, to launch them well-prepared into life.
The people in this room have changed their lives through education and tonight is theirs because we know how difficult it was to have the courage and make the time to come back to school. They are terrific students and it is their success that inspires the men and women who do the work as literacy tutors, as teachers, as adult education organisers. Between them they make the individual stronger, end the old days of wasted talents and now that strengthened individual makes the family, the community and our country stronger too.
Ireland is a very successful place today and we have a shared ambition written in our constitution for every single person to share in that success, to experience its uplift and to live lives where their full potential gets the chance to blossom. It’s a demanding world with new technologies and new skills needed every day so lifelong learning is a necessity of life for all of us. Virtually every bit of law Ilearnt at university has been changed. My husband studied Physics at a time when there was only one computer in all of Northern Ireland and it belonged to the Government. So every one of us has to be prepared to update and upskill - to do what you have done, go back to school every so often.
It is said that “knowledge is power” and a glance around our world today shows clearly that where access to education is absent, widespread poverty and powerlessness are always close at hand. That was once the story of Ireland. It is no longer our story and your efforts are helping our country achieve its ambition to be a world-class knowledge-based economy - a place where the brainpower of its people is our biggest and best natural asset. We need all of that brainpower working at maximum speed to help us solve the complexities of everyday life and to introduce us to the joys of living in a vibrant, multicultural, new Ireland.
NALA has been at the very heart of efforts to improve adult literacy in Ireland. I thank Inez Bailey and her dedicated team for their commitment and hard work through the years and for organising this event. As well as being an excellent advocate, champion, friend and teacher of people with literacy difficulties, the Agency has been responsible for much of the pioneering work in finding solutions to adult literacy problems.
A heartfelt thank you to the literacy organisers and tutors nationwide, whose work at local level, at the human level, is absolutely vital. More than teachers, they are friends, supporters, encouragers, psychologists and community activists who generously make other people’s problems their business.
Not everyone will receive an award tonight but every single participant in adult education is already a worthy winner who has earned the respect and pride of families, friends, teachers, neighbours and the rest of us. We encourage you to keep on course and we join with you as all of us salute the awards recipients. It is not easy going back to class and to homework while you have a family to look after or a job to do. Your certificates tell us of the many ways in which you sacrificed and tested yourselves to invest in your education. You are now Ireland’s best ambassadors for adult education and you have earned our congratulations the hard way. Enjoy your special evening! Enjoy the future with a new heart.
Comhghairdeas libh arís agus go raibh fada buan sibh. Go raibh maith agaibh.