1. University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand. www.canterbury.ac.nz
College of Science
School of Biological Sciences:
T: +64 3 364 2500
E: biology@canterbury.ac.nz
14 August 2014
To Whom It May Concern,
I coordinate a large 100 level biology course at University of Canterbury that in recent
years has had between 175 and 250 students. We are always shocked by the number of
students who lack basic literacy skills. This ranges from spelling to sentence construction
to the logical structuring of an essay-style answer to an exam question. This year we
identified 15 students who in our opinion required English skills tuition. In previous years
this has ranged up to about 30 students. This includes both overseas and local students.
These are only the students who really stand out by having especially poor skills. Others
could also benefit from tuition.
We would dearly like to see all our students enter university fully equipped with the
necessary literacy skills. This has to happen earlier in their education and ideally in the
youngest age groups. I support any efforts to provide the resources that would help this
happen.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Broady (Dr)
Senior Lecturer
Coordinator BIOL113 Diversity of Life
Biological Sciences
University of Canterbury
paul.broady@canterbury.ac.nz