ANOTHER training workshop, themed ‘On the Wings of Words’, sponsored by Varqa Foundation, will begin today and continue through Friday, at School of the Nations, Lot 41 New Market Street, Georgetown. The aim is to enhance the reading skills of children and youths in Guyana, the coordinator, Mr. Abbas Hamid said.
According to him, it is a literacy programme for volunteers and parents to promote pre-literacy and literacy skills in participants between the ages of four and sixteen years.
He said, since its inception in 1996, some 7,000 facilitators have been trained countrywide and at least 13,000 youths have completed the course.
Hamid said Varqa publishes its own manuals, readers, workbooks and newsletters, providing comprehensive training for the facilitators and a successful reading process for children and youths.
He said the aim is to develop necessary pre-reading skills to ensure success in early reading, ability to decode words and comprehend.
Hamid said another aspect of the programme seeks to equip parents to raise their children to be good citizens of Guyana, which will empower the youths to take control of their lives through improved consultation and decision-making skills and increase their self-confidence.
He said, in today’s light, the undertaking is a new look on literacy.
“In addition to an efficient and effective method of teaching reading, this programme also distinguishes the need for moral and spiritual education, through the transforming power of the Word of God on the lives of the people,” Hamid stated.
As part of their learning, youths will discuss different pious themes and memorise short quotations that can help them reflect on moral and spiritual concepts, which will act as guiding standards throughout their lives, he said.
Hamid said the training was started after the University of Guyana (UG), in 1985, conducted a survey among youths who were school dropouts and Varqa discovered that approximately 89 percent of them were operating at literacy levels significantly less than acceptable and had difficulty in reading and understanding simple sentence construction.
Guyana Book Foundation and Unity Foundation are co-sponsors with Varqa.