Ministry of Education

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Senior Advisor to the Minister of Education, Dr. Rebecca Tortello, announcing that a Book Start Jamaica project will come on stream next year where every new mother will receive a book bag, as part of the Ministry's efforts to improve literacy. She was addressing a recent Think Tank session at the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) in Kingston.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) has plans to launch a 'Book Start Jamaica project' next year, in which every new mother will receive a bag with books to read to their children, as part of the Ministry's thrust to improve literacy.

The disclosure was made by Senior Advisor to the Minister of Education, Dr. Rebecca Tortello, during a recent Think Tank session at the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) in Kingston.

"We will also, hopefully, be launching a new project next year, if the funding pans out where every new mother, regardless of their socio-economic level, will receive a book bag with a child's book that will encourage them to start reading with their infants, from as early as possible," she said.

She explained that the Ministry believes that literacy is one of the most critical areas of education needing attention.

According to Dr. Tortello, the 'Book Start Jamaica project' will assist the MOE by getting children and parents to value books, and to value reading to create a bond with each other from sharing stories.

She also encouraged parents to join libraries, and help their children to become good readers.

"[We want them to] start formal schooling at grade one as emergent readers, and be able to recognise print in their environment, so that when they reach school, the teachers can start from there and build on the strength of an emergent reader without having to back track," Dr. Tortello said.

She added that the Book Start Jamaica project will be tied to the registration of births, so parents will automatically receive the bag whenever they register their child.

She also pointed out that plans are afoot to have standardised parenting messages.

"We will be working on setting standards for the content of parenting materials, so that we are all teaching the same message. We need to ensure that we are standardised across our systems, in terms of the messages we are sharing with our parents," the Senior Advisor said.

November is being celebrated as Parent Month, under the theme 'Parent the Right Way: Read with your Child Every Day'.

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