Universal Children’s Day is observed on 20 November each year to promote international togetherness and awareness among children worldwide. It offers each of us the opportunity to advocate, promote and celebrate children’s rights including the right to an education.
Six-year old Maina from Central Province is excited about starting his educational journey and joining his three older siblings at school. Now thanks to a new reading club at the local elementary school established through the PNG-Australia Partnership, he doesn’t have to wait any longer.
Reading clubs offer children the chance to take part in fun, engaging literacy activities in a safe place outside of the school environment. International research suggests that early learning programs, such as reading clubs, play an important role in shaping cognitive, social and language skills and children who attend these programs perform better in the formal school system.
Reading clubs have been established in 26 schools across Rigo and Kairuku Districts of Central Province through the Together for Education project, an initiative of the Australian Government, in partnership with the Government of Papua New Guinea. Child Fund is an implementing partner in the project.
These Reading clubs aim to give four to six-year-old children a valuable head start with their reading before entering elementary school. The clubs are run by volunteers selected by their own communities.
Margo Sinau, a community volunteer underwent training provided by Child Fund and now runs the reading club three mornings a week at the Ginigolo School near Rigo. Mrs Sinau believes the club for four to six-year-olds, has been a great success.
“We have about 43 boys and girls coming to the club, an indication that they are very keen to learn. Some of the children learn very quickly and because they can borrow books, they are practicing reading at home – a good start and a very important first step in self-education at a young age,” Mrs Sinau said.
Many of the books from the reading clubs have colourful pictures and reflect life in the rural areas that children like Maina can relate to. The books have been written by Papua New Guinea writers and produced by Library for All, another partner in the Together for Education project.
Mrs Sinau said that the Reading club program should be fun and interactive to ensure children enjoy and develop a love of reading.
“We want the children to keep coming back, so we don’t just sit and read. We have activities and games that help the children learn their letters and their sounds. We try to keep them interested, doing activities together in a really enjoyable way,” she said.
Nekani Raeta, Maina’s mother, is pleased to see her son showing such an interest in reading.
“He brings books home every day and I read along with him – it’s important to take an interest in what they are interested in. I read with Maina and help him with pronouncing and understanding words that he may not understand; I see this is as my responsibility as a parent to help prepare him for formal schooling,” she said.
The reading clubs not only provide books and help children learn to read, they also provide training to equip parents with effective reading strategies to foster language acquisition and improve their children’s early reading success.
Child Fund Project Officer, Bruce Sagata, said the support from parents and families for the reading clubs had been really positive.
“We visited the communities and let them know about the clubs and the libraries and how it would work, and the response was positive. It’s something new, but parents see the potential and kids always bring the books back so that they can borrow a new one,” he said.
In fact, both Mr Sagata and Mrs Sinau think the clubs could do with more books as club attendance is so strong.
“We encourage the communities to find ways to get more books, and to really drive the reading clubs themselves– these are their community clubs and their libraries,” Mr Sagata said.
Together for Education is implemented by a consortia led by World Vision which includes Library for All, Child Fund, Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council and the University of Canberra.
For further information, including access to related materials, please contact the Australian High Commission media team: +675 7090 0100