Transcript of Video Address Rt. Hon. David Blunkett, MP, Secretary of State for Education and Employment I'd like to take this opportunity of welcoming everyone to the conference and thanking the organisers. My apologies for not being with you in person but I'm very pleased that Baroness Tessa Blackstone will be able to spell out the deep commitment we have as a government to carrying this agenda forward. I'd like to thank Sir Claus Moser for the enormous work that he and the committee have done, and for all those organisations that have been working for so long in developing a commitment to adult learning and to seeing it through what have been very bleak years when the level of adult literacy and numeracy, when the commitment to basic skills has not been anything like that which all of us today would wish to see for the future. My Government's committed to doing something dramatic about this. Sir Claus's report revealed the scale of the problem we face. 7 million adults without basic literacy skills. Probably double that number in terms of those struggling with numeracy. Men and women who, if they spent £2 and they'd actually got to work out the change in terms of £1.35 worth of goods couldn't actually do so. Those who are struggling in terms of coping with what their children are bringing home in their homework. This is a challenge for all for us and in tackling those basic skills we're contributing both to the standards agenda in terms of learning for families but also to our economy and prosperity for the future. But we're committed through the Community Learning Fund, through the Union Learning Fund and through our work on family literacy and learning to be able to something dramatic. We'll be able to do so in terms of the year of maths and our drive for numeracy. But above all we'll be able to take the Moser report forward with your help and with the commitment of those already engaged in adult learning, and so long as we can find the resources to be able to back it up and to support it. Baroness Tessa Blackstone will be saying more about that. And reinforcing our commitment to making it work for the future. Home