International Literacy Day – Here’s how you can help

Image: ALNF
Image: ALNF
Have some spare pre-loved children’s books lying around? Help a child in a remote community build their literacy skills

“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all” –Jacqueline Kennedy

Literacy – being able to read and write is a child’s catalyst for future success. It might be considered a basic human right, but there are still an astounding number of children and even adults that are without this incredibly powerful empowerment tool.

The Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (ALNF) knows this all too well. Their Share-A-Book programme is dedicated to raising language, literacy and numeracy standards in Australia by providing pre-loved books to disadvantaged, pre-school and primary aged kids around Australia.

The organisation’s statistics (see below) are grim, especially when research has proven that children who are exposed to books prior to school are more likely to do well, but not all kids have access to print materials.

  • Only 1 in 5 children in very remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory can read at the minimum NAPLAN standard.
  • Every year in NSW alone, almost 13,000 children fail to meet basic standards in reading, writing or mathematics when they finish primary school.
  • An Australian report released in 2010 showed that 46 per cent of Australian workers had substandard literacy skills and 53% had numeracy below the expected benchmark.
  • The percentage of Year 5 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students achieving the national minimum standard in reading is less than half (47%) in remote areas and barely one-quarter (26%) in very remote areas.

Why not take children to the library I hear you ask? Not all parents have the confidence and literacy to request books for loan. The social or geographical situation of kids also makes this difficult.

Literacy provides the fundamental building blocks for learning as well as being a major personal empowerment tool.

Here’s where you come in; The ALNF has put out an urgent call for preschool and kindergarten books for kids in remote communities across Australia.

If you can help, please send brand new or good quality preloved early readers books to 208 New South Head Road, Edgecliff 2027.

 

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