Literacy, Numeracy and Digital literacy Strategy

Ireland’s Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy 2024-2033: Every Learner from Birth to Young Adulthood (herein after the strategy) seeks to extend and build on the ambition and achievements of the previous strategy Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life: The National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy among Children and Young People 2011-2020 (herein after 2011 strategy).

The strategy was developed through cross-departmental collaboration between the Department of Education and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The strategy is set across all stages of the learner's journey from early learning and care (ELC) to post-primary school. It aims to promote the development of essential literacy, numeracy, and digital literacy skills, knowledge, and dispositions including successfully navigating an ever-evolving digital world.

The strategy, informed by rigorous research, together with a wide ranging and extensive consultation process, provides definitions of literacy, numeracy and digital literacy. It also and details how the learner will experience literacy, numeracy and digital literacy at each level from early learning and care to post-primary school.

It sets out objectives under five key pillars:

• Pillar 1: Enabling parents and communities to support learners’ literacy, numeracy and digital literacy
• Pillar 2: Supporting the professional practice of early years educators, childminders and teachers
• Pillar 3: Supporting leadership in early learning and care and in the school system
• Pillar 4: Improving the learner experience through curriculum, pedagogy and assessment
• Pillar 5: Supporting diverse learners to achieve their potential

The implementation of the strategy will span a period of ten years, from 2024 to 2033, supported by two implementation plans. The first plan published alongside this strategy sets out the objectives and associated actions for the next five years.

The findings from the research fed into the consultation process which commenced in December 2022. It included:

• Public consultation, yielding 1044 responses to the online questionnaire and 35 written submissions
• 16 targeted focus groups with key stakeholders and
• Stakeholder consultation event In May 2023 to discuss the key themes which emerged from the research and consultation

The key observations and challenges identified range from providing greater clarity around definitions and approaches, to clearly articulating the purpose of this new strategy. There were also calls for the strategy to be linked more closely with the wider community, by further involving and supporting parents and families, and by providing more multilingual approaches. The consultation phase highlighted the need to provide comprehensive supports to staff and management, expanded forms of professional development and enhanced monitoring and evaluation of literacy, numeracy and digital literacy levels over the lifetime of the strategy.

The consultation phase has reiterated that literacy, numeracy and digital literacy are interlinked with a wide range of existing policies, strategies and curricular reform within and across departments, and it will be important to recognise these linkages and build on them in this new strategy, in particular considering areas of overlap.

The consultation reports can be accessed here:

The report ‘Towards a New Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy: A Review of Literature’, together with supporting review papers, was launched on 3 May 2023 by Minister for Education Norma Foley TD.

The literature review research, commissioned by the Department of Education, was undertaken by the Institute of Education, Dublin City University (DCU), with authors including Dr. Eithne Kennedy, Dr. Gerry Shiel, Dr Geraldine French, Dr. Lorraine Harbison, Dr. Margaret Leahy, Prof. Pádraig Ó’Duibhir and Dr. Joe Travers.

In conducting the research, a total of 28 separate systematic reviews were completed. These explored pedagogical strategies, approaches and methodologies to support literacy, numeracy and digital literacy and gave due recognition to the cognitive and affective dimensions of learning, including learner voice and agency.

The authors’ final report, which draws the key points from the research together, focuses on areas including: literacy, numeracy, dimensions of assessment, supporting literacy and numeracy development of diverse learners across the curriculum, continuous professional development, leadership and family and community.

In addition, it looks at defining literacy, numeracy and digital literacy, the outcomes of the 2011 Literacy and Numeracy Strategy across early learning and care, primary and post-primary settings and developments in curriculum and teacher education since 2011.

The research also details suggested recommendations / actions for inclusion in the new strategy, drawn from conclusions and recommendations of national and international reviews.

Under the Programme for Government, the Department of Education is tasked with the development of a successor Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy. The strategy will run for ten years.

The new strategy will provide the overarching framework connecting many Department of Education policies, strategies and developments at curriculum level. It will be for all learners, educators and education partners and stakeholders – including those in early learning and care, primary and post-primary school settings.

You can read more about the development of the Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy here.