CHIEF Education Officer (CEO), Mr. Olato Sam said, Monday, that every Guyanese has to recognise the importance of literacy in their lives and understand that, no matter where they are, they can contribute to the drive to eliminate illiteracy in Guyana.
He expressed the view when he took part in a live National Communications Network (NCN) panel discussion on the Education Ministry’s countrywide ‘Give a Book’ and ‘Drop Everything and Read’ campaign.
It was in observance of International Literacy Day 2013, which was observed on Sunday and included in the Ministry’s Education Month calendar of activities as well as the national effort to raise awareness of the importance of reading, primarily among young people.
Sam said the ministry is very encouraged by the response received from persons and organisations who have said that they are supporting the initiative and emphasised the need for a multi-stakeholder approach to improving literacy in Guyana.
“In some small way, we can give a book to someone, encourage someone, work on our own deficiencies, help to make this a national initiative that will succeed,” he stated.
According to him, every Guyanese has a key role to play and they should not assume that whatever they are doing is insignificant because just creating awareness and creating it in such a way that it registers the importance in someone’s mind can go a really long way.
Sam also recognised the critical role that teachers play in the shaping of the ministry’s outcomes and added that it is important for persons to come on board to support what is being done in the classroom.
Media literate
On the issue of the all encompassing approach to literacy, he spoke about the import of being media literate, since persons need to be able to process the information coming from all forms of media, which is a skill that needs to be developed overtime.
Sam remarked that, in all aspects of a person’s life, the value and the necessity to be literate and expand on one’s literacy can be seen, also taking new technology into account.
Speaking at the same forum, Acting Regional Director of the Commonwealth Youth Programme, Mrs. Glenyss James said there is more to reading, writing and understanding, as persons have to be able to relate with others, work in cultural diversity and look at all the new technologies emerging.
Highlighting that the theme for this year’s International Literacy Day looked at the different literacies, she noted that, even with the new technology and different forms of social media, persons are still required to be literate to be able to manipulate technological devices.
“I think, even with the texting and the writing now, we are beginning to compromise how we write the English Language and we are seeing the results in some of our exams that we are moving away from doing it in the proper and right way,” James stated.
She said she promotes a lot of active reading in homes and what she has found missing for these past couple days is the hunger for reading, both by parents and children.
She admits being concerned about how to encourage this generation of parents to be able to take a more active part in their children’s lives, since it is not the Ministry of Education’s responsibility alone to ensure that they know how to read but it is a multi-stakeholder process.