Reading key to improving literacy and development

By LOUISAH FRANK
READING is the key to improving not only literacy in the country but also to be equipped with skills, knowledge and tools to develop PNG, a Literacy Week message echoed.
It was a message from the co-founder of Crysan Technology, Crystal Kewe, during the opening of the National Literacy Week in Port Moresby yesterday.
The 20-year-old winner of the Apec App Challenge said she read a lot of books.
“I am able to communicate and run my own company because of reading.” Kewe said.
“I didn’t go to university or college but I taught myself how to programme an application when I was 12 through reading.”
Kewe told those present at the opening ceremony that the great thing about reading was that it not only improved one’s English but also helped develop the mind by learning from the experiences of those who wrote the books you read.
According to the 2015 literacy report, PNGs literacy rate was 63.4 percent.
“The adult literacy rate increased from 57.3 in 2000 to 63.4 percent in 2015 at an average annual rate of 5.28 per cent while literacy rate for women is at 61.77 per cent and male at 65.06 per cent as recorded in 2015,” Minister for Education Nick Kuman said.
He said according to the 2015 national youth literacy rate, the youth literacy rate remained stable between 2000 and 2015 at 66.68 per cent.
Kuman said out of 22 provinces, nine had not reached an acceptable literacy rate which implied that PNG’s literacy rate was low and required urgent government intervention.
He said in addressing this, the government had invested K3 billion through Tuition Fee Free (TFF) education which had seen an increase in children enrolled in schoolsfrom elementary to secondary schools.
Kuman said his department was supporting basic literacy and numeracy training programmes for adults out of school as well as enabling policies like the standard-based curriculum, infrastructure development, system strengthening and use of information communication technology.