OECD tests show almost one-third of Australia’s 15-year-olds can’t read well enough to cope in society, according to federal Education Minister Julie Bishop. "The bottom 30% would have difficulty holding down a job with their level of literacy and numeracy," she says. Fully 12%, or about 30,000 each year, are at the lowest level. About a third of Year 4 and Year 8 students in similar tests for mathematics can manage only the lowest benchmark, if that.