Schools, parents and the education sector needed to work together to boost Maltese and English literacy among children, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said this afternoon.

Speaking during the launch of a new initiative at the Zabbar primary as part of the National Literacy Strategy, Mr Bartolo told parents “before you find time to read to your children, find time to speak to them.”

He said that a lot of parents spent a lot of time on electronic gadgets and there were three years olds with communication problems as a result.

“If children have a problem to speak, they will have a problem to learn,” the minister said.

He urged the parents to recount their childhood memories to their children to engage them in discussions.

“They will find this interesting as they live in a different world,” he said.