23 January, 2019

News Corp and Australia Post Tackle Illiteracy In Aussie Kids

Three young girls and a boy are outdoors during summer. They are laying in the grass and reading a book together.

By B&T Magazine

With research revealing Australia’s literacy levels are falling alarmingly below global standards, News Corp Australia and Australia Post have joined forces to encourage more children and parents to read, write and embrace the magic of storytelling.

Raise A Reader is News Corp’s consumer education and advocacy campaign, designed to highlight the importance of developing early literacy skills among Australian children and the critical role parents play as educators and role models in demonstrating a love for reading.

News Corp Australia national education publisher Toni Hetherington said: “We are proud to partner with Australia Post in this important initiative with The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier-Mail, and The Advertiser alongside our regional mastheads.”

News Corp Australia will proudly be supporting this campaign from both an editorial and retail perspective.

“Literacy skills are fundamental in ensuring future success in our country.

“At News Corp, we understand that it is our responsibility to utilise our platforms to inspire more children to enjoy reading.

“Our journalists around the country will encourage their audiences and communities to ‘Raise A Reader’ through this strong editorial campaign.”

Raise a Reader complements the launch of Australia Post’s Legends stamp series which recognises living Australians who have made an outstanding and inspirational contribution to Australia’s communities and culture.

In 2019 this series recognises Australia’snleading children’s authors.

News Corp readers also will be invited to take part in the Letters to Legends national competition to encourage children to write a letter to their chosen “legend”, explaining the qualities they believe make their chosen person a legend and how this person inspires them.

An exclusive survey of 1000 parents and grandparents commissioned by News Corp Australia found 86 per cent of respondents wanted their children to spend more time reading books with more than 88 per cent reading to their child at least once a week.

UNICEF has rated Australia as 39 out of 41 countries ‘in achieving quality education.

And nearly one in five Australian children are not meeting international benchmarks for reading, according to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study released in 2017 by the Australian Council for Educational Research, assessing grade four students from 50 countries around the world.

The study focuses on two things: reading for literary experience, which includes being able to imagine things like characters and settings; and using information, which includes things like understanding timelines and learning how things work.

The research found almost 20 percent of Australian participants were classified as having a “low” or “below low” standard of literacy.

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