Children give top marks to family literacy club

Children taking part in a local family literacy programme, which is now being copied in other countries, say they have seen a great improvement in their reading and writing skills and have become more enthusiastic readers.

In the two years that the after-school scheme Klabb Hilti has been run by the Foundation for Educational Services, in collaboration with about 20 state schools, 860 primary school children and their parents have taken part.

Just over 60 per cent of the children said they had learned to read "very much" better, according to figures from a survey presented at a National Family Literacy Conference organised by the foundation last weekend. Another 30 per cent said they could now read moderately better.

Sandro Spiteri, the coordinator of the foundation's Institute for Child and Parent Learning Support, reported similar results with regard to writing.

And 90 per cent of the children said they were now reading more books, a positive outcome even by itself.

The participating parents were asked to note any changes in their children. They confirmed an eagerness to read more and reported better speech and pronounciation skills, improved concentration and schoolwork and more confidence in school.

The parents said they had developed better links with their child's school and their own self-confidence had been boosted. They also better understood their child's and their own educational needs.

Klabb Hilti, which will be extended to 10 more centres next year, consists of a one-and-a-half-hour session for children and parents held twice a week right after school. Special attention is paid to "communities with challenges", as the foundation puts it.

The aim is to harness children's eagerness to work and learn alongside their parents, and to help the parents become co-educators of their children, learners themselves, and eventually programme leaders.

The emphasis is on learning through play, and apart from literacy the programme covers nutrition, hygiene and personal and social skills.

Shortly after school ends, children and parents are taken for a first half-hour session apart. The children are engaged in a fun activity to wind down from school and energise them for further work, while their parents are in another room rehearsing for the joint session to follow.

The two then work and learn together for another half an hour, using techniques such as 'shared reading', and they separate again for the last segment to "process" what they have learnt. So far, parental attendance at the sessions has been merely "encouraged", but as from next year it will be made compulsory, after evidence showed that the more parents made a presence, the higher their children's attainment, Mr Spiteri said.

So successful has the Malta initiative been that it is now being adapted by foreign institutions to their own settings in Belgium, England, Italy, Lithuania, Rumania and Spain.

The Parent Empowerment for Family Literacy Project (P.E.Fa.L), which is being co-ordinated by the foundation and supported by the European Union, is aimed at marginalised families who are deficient in basic skills necessary for active participation in society, with the hope of "breaking the cycle of hopelessness".

Parents and children are taught literacy, numeracy and social skills, with parents helping their children along the way. The parents also learn how to use information and communication technology as they communicate with parents in the other countries involved in the project.

The parents are also trained to set up basic skills courses in their own communities.