Students at the Harbour View Primary School performed a drama piece titled 'The Transformation' at the school's literacy day event on Friday. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

"TODAY A reader, tomorrow a leader" echoed on the lips of students at the Harbour View Primary School in Kingston as they observed literacy day on Friday under the international theme, 'Literacy The Best Remedy'.

According to principal Lawrence Wright, since he went to the school last year, he has recognised that many of the students have a reading problem. As a result, he has been encouraging reading in all the grades, so that the children will become more literate.

"I also encourage all the children, especially the upper grades - four, five and six - to buy The Gleaner's Children's Own and read them," Wright told The Sunday Gleaner.

reading session

Wright said on some days he would hold a reading session in his office targeting slow readers in the various grades, and spend from 45 minutes to 60 minutes with them reading a book, and discussing what they had read to see if they had grasped any, or if they had improved on their reading ability.

Explained Wright: "The pro-blem is that most of these students get no support with reading at home. So when they come to school, they cannot read and it impacts their learning abilities in a negative way."

assignments

Wright said he had to bridge the gap by requiring parents to sign their children's assignments, as this showed the parents' level of interest, accountability, responsibility and partnership in improving the literacy level of the children.

"What we had done was to recommend parents to invest more in books and less on blingbling. So the literacy day is a boost to what we are doing," the principal remarked.

Wright told The Sunday Gleaner that the Grade Four Literacy Test results at the mastery level had improved by 20 per cent over the year. He said the current strategy to improve the performance of children who are slow readers through the use of four reading specialists has resulted in significant improvements.

Vinette Simms, team leader at the Education Transformation Team at the Ministry of Education and Youth, dismissed the notion that the teaching of reading skills was the responsibility only of teachers, arguing that all the stakeholders involved should take an active part in helping the children to read more. "Without reading, we cannot go anywhere in life," she commented.

illiteracy

Rose-Marie Gray, a parent who attended the event, commented that the transformation of illiteracy was important because many children graduate from high school and cannot read; hence, they cannot get a job.

The literacy day celebration was supported by the Office of Utilities Regulation, several bookstores, the Jamaica Library Service, and the Habour View police.