Literacy problems among school leavers attempting to access further education are being tackled at the roots in the south-east with an initiative from the Department of Education.
The Kilkenny Education Centre’s Reading Recovery programme is aimed at children aged six and seven and is an early intervention programme designed to reduce literary problems.
It provides intensive, individual help for any child who, after a year of schooling, has not responded to classroom teaching in reading and writing.
Paul Fields, director of KEC, emphasised that the goal of Reading Recovery is to return the very lowest achieving children to the average levels for their age as independent readers and writers in a relatively short period of time.
“Reading Recovery identifies those children who are having difficulty at an early stage in their schooling, before problems become too entrenched, and provides specialised one-to-one assistance from teachers trained in reading recovery procedures,” he said.
On behalf of the department, the KEC runs the Reading Recovery programme for the south-east in a purpose built unit in the centre. Minister John McGuinness was on hand to distribute certificates to the teachers who had trained in reading recovery procedures.
Over the past year, 13 teachers from Carlow, Kilkenny, Offaly, Waterford and Wexford have received intensive training in the programme. This year approximately 60 children who completed the programme have been brought up to age-appropriate reading levels within 20 weeks.
“This has been a tremendous achievement for all schools involved and one that needs to be built on so that we can remove more children from the illiterate loop,” Mr Fields said.
“Next year KEC will train a further 13 teachers and it is hoped that it will bring 120 children to age-appropriate levels. The programme not only affects the child’s ability to read and write but also their self esteem and confidence,” he stated.
