Millions donated to boost reading

THE education for all, fast track initiative (EFA FTI) recently announced a grant of US$19.2 million to PNG which will help mainly to advance the reading skills of children of elementary and primary-school age.
This was under the Read PNG project which is an innovative approach to accelerate quality component of the universal basic education (UBE) plan 2010-19.
The funds will go to enrich classrooms, libraries, educational material and teaching training.
“This grant is special. It will help make reading fun for our young readers,” acting education secretary Dr Joseph Pagelio said.
He said children would now feed their passion for stories.
“They will be able to go to the library now and take out books that will stimulate their imagination, open their minds about the world and show them other worlds and give them ideas.
“This is a transformative initiative indeed,” he said.
The project has two components:
* Support for improved reading in elementary and primary schools through increasing the availability of books, other reading material and simple furniture in elementary and primary school classrooms throughout the country; and
* Entail rigorous assessment of reading skills, otherwise called early grade reading assessment (EGRA).
EGRA assessment will produce baseline for provinces during the project period (2011-13), build local capacity to replicate EGRA at the central and provincial levels, analyse the implications of EGRA findings for quality improvements and use EGRA findings to mobolising parental and other support for reading.