Strengthening the National Literacy Agency’s initiatives to increase the literacy skills of more students

Directors of the National Literacy Agency had a meeting with Minister for Education Justyne Caruana during which a number of topics related to literacy were discussed. Minister Caruana expressed her commitment and support and that of the Ministry for Education for the agency’s work.

“The work being done by the National Literacy Agency is very important because it is encouraging children to develop communication skills and, since its establishment in 2014, this agency has worked and strived with the aim of disseminating and strengthening literacy practices among children, young people, and adults so that they have the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills and participate fully in society, and today we are seeing positive results thanks to this work, which we must continue to strengthen”, said Minister Justyne Caruana.

The National Literacy Agency is working to improve the level of literacy in our country leading to a higher level of education and more opportunities in the employment sector.

Discussion also centred about how the agency’s programmes and initiatives could be strengthened and expanded to enable more students to acquire basic literacy skills, not only to be prepared for the opportunities offered by the education sector but also to develop as responsible and analytical persons.

In particular, the meeting mentioned the training and implementation of the reading recovery intervention, the need to strengthen the literacy teams in our colleges, and the strengthening of the Maltese language through modern, attractive books, and resources for all children, for those who have Maltese as their first language as well as for those for whom Maltese is a foreign language.

The meeting also mentioned the importance of the Language Policy for Education, including the policy set for the early and the primary years.