Editing Donald Dewar (section)

=== Adult literacy rates ===

In May 2000, a report indicated that 400,000 Scots were unable to source employment as a result of poor adult literacy rates, with the estimated total being roughly one million adults deemed as "functionally illiterate". In response, Henry McLeish, the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning in the Dewar government confirmed that "efforts would be made to gather exact statistics to tackle the issue". Dewar and the government were criticised due to there being a considerable lack of opportunities and programmes available to provide basic adult education similar to programmes that had already been established in [[England]] and in [[Wales]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Scott |first1=Kirsty |title=Scotland faces problem of 1m illiterate adults |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/may/16/education.educationnews |website=The Guardian |access-date=5 November 2024 |date=16 May 2000}}</ref>