READ PROGRAMME

The Read Programme of the St Michael West Central Constituency is in its third year and proving to be an invaluable tool in developing the reading skills of children in the constituency. The initiative which was facilitated by the Parliamentary Representative, Hon. James Paul has been duplicated in other constituencies and promises to get bigger as momentum gathers.

The Read Programme continues to address the need to improve the reading abilities of children in the constituency. The strategy being pursued is to target the young children between the ages of 5 and 12 in the first instance and then develop the program to reach out to persons in the higher age groups. "READ" is an acronym which stands for Reading for Education and All round Development and as it states seeks to provide a critical tool for the development of people. To be able to read empowers the individual in a way that so many of us in society take for granted and it is recognised that we need to involve the community in the effort to develop those skills.

The programme started in November 2007 and has been operating on the goodwill of volunteers in the community and we have been able to recruit a group of loyal volunteers to run the programme. This was important if the programme was to take hold. Another part of the strategy has been to make contact with the parents because it is essential to involve parents in the effort to develop their children. In addition it was recognised that they would form an important part of the strategy to reach out to the adolescents in the society who have reading difficulties and did not have the courage to address them. The involvement of the parents would also serve to develop good parental skills in terms of their involvement in the lives of the children and also foster a better appreciation of reading by our young people.

In trying to deal with reading it must be recognised that we are also trying to address a social problem because we are not a people known for reading in fact it has been observed that our reading and literacy skills are declining. An examination of the problem reveals that when it comes to gender the gap is deficient when we go past a certain age barrier. The programme has been able to attract a roster of 50 children and it boasts of 60% regular attendance. The methodology to facilitate the process is quite simple as we encourage volunteers to sit down and read to and with the children. In addition, the volunteers are encouraged to listen to the children read so that the children can gain confidence in their reading.

The sessions are held on Saturdays between the hours of 3:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon at the Constituency Office located at Scott’s Terrace, Grazettes and on average we have five volunteers working with the children. Once the approach is tried and tested it is proposed to use the same blueprint to facilitate expansion to other sections of the St Michael West Central Community.