I read that the director of the Centre for the Economics of Education recently condemned literacy and numeracy training for adults as a waste of taxpayers’ money. Apparently there is no evidence to show that the government’s Skills for Life initiative, launched in 2001, has boosted Britain’s economic output.

A spokesperson for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills is quoted as saying: “We have no intention of writing off the 12 million adults who struggle with literacy or numeracy... We consider it money well spent”. I say thank goodness for that! Some things in life fall into the category of being the right thing to do and I consider helping adults to read and write to be one of them.

I am a trustee of a small charity called Prisoners’ Education Trust. We provide prisoners with distance learning opportunities that would not otherwise be available to them through the statutory educational provisions. These are often people who messed up their schooling, played truant and so on, only to realise as adults (often having been in and out of prison a number of times) that education is the answer. Every week we get heartfelt letters from prisoners saying that the chance to study has changed their life.

However, a reasonable question you might ask (if you were sufficiently hard-nosed) is whether there is any evidence that prisoners who elect to do distance learning while they are banged up have lower re-conviction rates than those who do not. For me, this is the equivalent of asking whether helping adults to read and write boosts the economy.

My answer, cavalier as it is, is to say that I don’t care! I’ll do it as an act of faith – just like exercising, drinking water and eating five fruit and veg a day. I have come to the conclusion that you can take the evidence-based approach too far. It is not that I am against evidence as such - just evidence that kills off entirely laudable things like learning. People often ask me for evidence that learning in organisations contributes to the bottom line. I always tell them they are confusing training and learning. Of course training should be evaluated. But learning? Hands off! It is one of those things that is the right thing to do.

By the way, there is a positive correlation between prisoners doing distance learning and lower re-conviction rates. But, of course, the next question is why. Perhaps prisoners who have the sense to educate themselves re-offend just as much, but are better at not getting caught.