Call to improve literacy tactics

Education

PAPUA New Guinea’s efforts to improve literacy levels must take on a more aggressive approach, said an education expert.
A targeted literacy programme would raise literacy levels and help get more Papua New Guineans to participate in development programmes and enjoy the country’s economic benefits, said Reading Association of Papua New Guinea coordinator Johnson Kalu.
“Papua New Guinea is under pressure to achieve various international benchmarks in literacy and (the United Nations) millennium development goals (MDG),” he said.
“We need to ensure we contribute to our knowledge and understanding of reading and writing.”
He said Papua New Guinea’s literacy rate was more than 63 per cent and growing at an annual rate of 6 per cent.
He said the literacy rate was calculated by assessing the ability of those aged 15 years and over to see if they could – with understanding – read and write a short,
simple statement in their everyday life.
Kalu said that promoting education at grassroots level would help improve literacy levels.