Education Minister Reads for the Children

Students from two Corporate Area schools, on Tuesday, May 9, benefited from interactive reading sessions with Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid.

The Minister engaged attentive students from the Alpha Infant School, and at Fundaciones El Centro, where he also interacted in Spanish as he participated in Read Across Jamaica Day, which was being observed islandwide.

Highlighting the significance of the Day, Mr. Reid stressed that reading is the foundation upon which children will be able to learn and develop intellectually.

“Once you are able to read, knowledge is available to you. Knowledge leads to understanding, and a lot of students who don’t do very well at school, it’s because they have a problem with reading.

So, we really applaud all the educators who have put a lot of energy, from year to year, in the business of reading,” he said.

Noting that it is common knowledge that Jamaicans don’t like to read, Mr. Reid said Read Across Jamaica Day plays an important role in demonstrating “the efficacy, the great benefits of children reading, learning to read, and loving reading”.

“Once the children love reading, they themselves become independent learners, and it’s obviously providing for us the foundation for a much better outcome in the education system,” he said.

For her part, Director, Fundaciones, Rachael McDonald, told JIS News that she was pleased with the Minister’s endorsement of Read Across Jamaica Day and sharing in the message and the benefits of reading aloud.

“It’s a really big deal for us, because it is something that we believe in wholeheartedly; and for parents and grandparents and other stakeholders to see the Minister endorsing these benefits, it really resonates with us,” she said.

Ms. McDonald, who is also a Commissioner on the Early Childhood Commission (ECC), said the Day also involved participation of 170 police officers in reading sessions in various schools.

The Read Across Jamaica initiative, spearheaded by the Education Ministry, seeks to help advance literacy and the love of reading in children.

This year’s theme is: ‘Literacy Matters – Read Aloud, Promote Collaboration and Confidence in Children’.