ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of recent developments in adult literacy in New Zealand. Many political observers saw New Zealand as having strong liberal, progressive ideals in most spheres of life in comparison with other countries. Dramatic economic transformations over the past few decades, including momentous structural changes in the 1980s, have had a major and lasting impact on education and training policy. Until the late 1960s, New Zealand’s economy was closely tied to Great Britain, which provided a guaranteed market for New Zealand’s mainly agricultural products. Unlike the United States, where adult literacy has been an acknowledged issue for a much longer period, New Zealand traces its modern adult literacy movement only to the early 1970s. Until 1997, little was known about New Zealand’s adult literacy rate. That year proved a turning point when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published the International Adult Literacy Survey results in Literacy Skills for the Knowledge Society.
