The Ministry of Education’s National Literacy Department yesterday launched the Primary School Libraries initiative.
This initiative coincides with the celebration of World Literacy Day, themed “Promoting Multi-lingual Education: Literacy for Mutual Understanding and Peace.”
It aims to establish well-resourced libraries in primary schools across the nation, providing pupils with access to a diverse range of reading materials in multiple languages, a release from the Ministry of Education said.
This effort is designed to foster a love of reading from an early age and support the development of literacy skills in various languages, it added.
Senior Education Officer, Donella Britton-Shamsudeen, in her remarks, explained that the initiative was brought to life through the vision of Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand.
“The National Literacy Department is aligning with the celebration of Education Month and our recently celebrated Inter-national Literacy Day. Education month reminds us that education is the foundation of the nation’s progress and development. International Literacy Day emphasizes that literacy is a human right. It is the pathway of personal empowerment, and a tool for social and economical development in any country”, she said.
Britton-Shamsudeen added “Even though we’re launching and the Primary level, Literacy is focused from Nursery, Primary and Secondary. At the Nursery schools, we would’ve had the revision of the ‘Roraima Reader’ series, where children will interact with words for the letters and sounds of things that they can see around them that are common, so that they can fit in anywhere in the world. We also would’ve developed our local alphabet chart, we’re currently designing new workbooks for the Nursery as well. Teachers will be given step by step guidance on how to teach Phonics and in particular, reading,” she explained.
