SAY you are useless at figures, “drawing a straight line“ or have two left feet on the dance floor, no-one thinks the worse of you. However, admit that you have difficulty with reading and writing and you may well be made to feel blame and shame.

Almost one quarter of Scotland’s adult population have some problem with reading and writing, and of that one and a quarter million, one in five has a profound problem.

This means that quarter of a million people in Scotland can’t read the labels on cheap bargain tins in supermarkets - which have no pictures, so it’s anyone’s guess if they have chicken soup, garden peas, kidney beans or baked beans on their toast for tea.

They can’t fill in forms or make claims, read how to take their medication correctly, read notes from their children’s school or help with homework, read books or newspapers or find out what’s on TV or at the cinema.

Often they won’t accept promotion at work because they know it would expose their inability to do paperwork. Some people have even been evicted because of a basic literacy problem.

Of course, most people who somehow fell between the cracks in the education system have worked out smart ways of disguising the fact that they have literacy problems - “I’ve forgotten my specs” lets you off reading, while having your hand bandaged excuses you from having to write. Blaming it on dyslexia, which carries no stigma, is common.

Help is readily at hand, however. For thanks to the Adult Basic Education (ABE) service, run by Highland Region’s community education department, anyone with reading and writing, or indeed numeracy problems, can get free and confidential help.

The notion that being unable to read and write easily is a sign of stupidity is, unfortunately, rife - but far from true.

“Lack of skills is not necessarily due to lack of intellect: we have university graduates for whom English is a second language. Then there are people in big houses with BMWs or Mercs in the drive and a good deal of business acumen who simply get their wives or secretaries to ‘do the pap-erwork’,” says Norma Christie, ABE co-ordinator for Ross & Cromarty who along with her Badenoch & Strathspey counterpart, Isobel Duncan, is covering for the Inverness co-ordinator Susan Mitchell who is currently off on chronic sick leave.

Altogether there are seven co-ordinators in the Highland Region and one organiser - a new one is shortly to be appointed. The help to “students”, as they are called, is actually provided by voluntary “tutors”. In Inverness there is a bank of around 70 or 80 tutors. “But we are always looking for more,” says Norma. Tutors give up around an hour a week of their own time, mostly because they feel they’d like to help.

“Tutors are not teachers and don’t have to have any qualifications. They enable rather than teach. We make sure they are not patronising or bossy, but just people with communication skills who want to share them with others whom the education system has let down,” says Norma. “We are always looking for volunteers, for we try to match up tutors with students.

“The experience is often highly satisfying - and even instructive - for the tutors as well. Some students may well know the ins and outs of the internal combustion engine, say, even if they have never read for years.

“Tutors have 16 hours of training initially, then they are supported by their co-ordinator until they have built up sufficient confidence and experience.”

Students come to ABE for a variety of reasons and at a variety of levels. Usually there is some crisis that has helped them make up their mind after, sometimes, years of thinking about it. Initially they are invited to think of what their short-term goal is, then their long-term goal.

“Perhaps when their children start to read at school they don’t want the kids to realise they can’t; they just want to stay one step ahead so they can help them,” says Isobel. They may go on to want to improve their skills more.

Sometimes it is when they have lost a partner “who always looked after the bills and everything” and they find they are lost with the domestic paperwork. Or perhaps they want to join the armed forces or become nurses, but their writing skills are letting them down in the entrance tests.

In any one year there are generally around 200 students in the Inverness area - all 16 or over - getting help from the ABE service. Just the tip of the iceberg, according to Norma and Isobel.

Often students feel not only let down by the system but also under-estimated by society in general. The most successful students are the self-motivated ones who are tired of being overlooked and want to prove to themselves and the world that they are worth more. One young woman started because she wanted to send out Christmas cards - in three years she was sitting her Highers.

“The more motivated people are, the greater their chance of success, says Norma. “The hardest thing is for people to admit that they have a problem and could do with help. They are delighted to find they are not alone in their problem.” ABE can be found at the Spectrum Centre, tel. 710013.