Education Ministry Official Stresses Importance of Literacy

National Literacy Coordinator in the Ministry of Education, Laurell Brent-Harris, has urged students to work assiduously to ensure that they become literate citizens, who can make a worthwhile contribution to the development of the country.
She was addressing students at a Literacy Week function held yesterday, November 19, at the Green Park Primary and Junior High School in Sandy Bay, Clarendon.
“What I am trying to point out is that this whole business of literacy is very important, and all of us can achieve acceptable standards of literacy. So if we are not yet there, we are going to make sure that we become literate,” she stated.
Mrs. Brent-Harris disclosed that close to 25 per cent of Jamaica’s adult population is illiterate, while some 771 million persons across the world have found themselves in this ill-fated category. She further pointed out that the most recently administered Grade Four Literacy Test results, showed that approximately 19 per cent of Grade Four students, across the nation, are not reading at their grade level. She urged the students to take home the message to their parents and guardians, because as stakeholders, they too have a very important role to play in the transformation of the society from a semi-literate one, to a fully literate one; and that this responsibility could not be left squarely at the feet of teachers and students.
Green Park Primary and Junior High, has designated November 17 to 21 ‘Literacy Week’. During this period several activities highlighting the importance of being literate in a modern society, are being staged.
These include a Readathon, a Spellathon, and the presentation of awards to students who have shown marked improvement, or who have performed outstandingly in the area of literacy. Literacy Week is being observed under the theme, ‘Transforming Education through Literacy’.