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Parents have unique role in improving their children’s literacy level – ACEO Primary
Mastery in literacy skills is a strategic tactic that will help children to advance in society.
ACEO Primary,
Marcel Hutson
This assertion was recently made by Assistance Chief Education Officer (ACEO) with responsibility for Primary, Mr Marcel Hutson, as he amplified the crucial roles of parents in the literacy process.
Hutson, who was at the time addressing a gathering at the launch of the Ministry’s Revised Literacy Programme on Monday, noted that “parents have a unique role to play and to provide a nurturing and motivating atmosphere that fosters your children’s intrinsic desires to read and to write in an informal setting.”
The ACEO shared his conviction that parental links are significantly related to children’s growth in reading achievements and school effectiveness.
Moreover, he noted that effective schools are the ones that reach out to parents and make them feel as welcomed partners. He therefore asserted that “progress is achieved when teachers partner with parents to foster reading. When parents read expressing enthusiasm and enjoyment while reading or discussing literature, their children build positive attitudes about reading.”
He pointed out that the motivation that children have towards reading is strongly affected by beliefs, values, attitudes and expectations their parents have about literacy and schooling.
Hutson disclosed too that activities such as storytelling, discussing books, singing, writing, receiving letters and even planning and preparing meals can be learning opportunities, even when children are unaware.
As a result he is convinced that parents who model reading and writing as essential activities in everyday life and give their children the opportunity to interact with print, their children will receive a distinct advantage when they enter school.
And the ACEO in animated mode went on to state “…the jury has summed up and the verdict is clear that parental involvement is fundamental to the development of children’s literacy skills.” It is for this reason, Hutson said, that the role of parents must never be abandoned, even as he added that “the spirit of the community is vital to this process, now more than ever…”
He further went on to stress that the role of education officials in the process must never be understated. Such officials, he underscored, have the responsibility to manage, supervise and monitor the education system at the level of the Ministry, Department and school. And according to Hutson, this crucial task must be one that is undertaken with great diligence.
It was in the quest to ensure that the goals of the sector is fully realised, Hutson noted, that a Literacy Plan was brought into being by the aptly qualified Planning Officers of the Ministry. This strategic move, according to him, is aimed at systematically improving the performance of children attending public schools across the country in the area of literacy.
“The time has come for us to declare war against illiteracy hence the literacy revolution has begun.”
Hutson however noted that over the years the Ministry of Education has been working assiduously to ensure that as a nation the status of universal primary education is achieved. To this effect, there has been increased spending in the building and staffing of schools in coastal and riverain areas which resulted in an increase in enrolment at nursery and primary levels, Hutson informed.
“As it now stands every child has access to primary education and as a Ministry we are determined to see that every child is literate by Grade Four,” he asserted.
The Education Ministry is currently celebrating Education Month under the theme “Literate by Grade Four through consistent home, school and community involvement” to encourage the improvement of literacy.
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