Professor Charles Mifsud, the coordinator of the National Literacy Strategy, addresses the need to change the reading habits and attitudes towards books among the Maltese.

The National Literacy Strategy for Malta and Gozo has been described by both Unesco and Council of Europe agencies as a comprehensive, wide-ranging and ambitious policy document. It seeks to build on existing good practices and was designed by groups of stakeholders and following extensive consultation.

The strategy, which has both lifelong and life-wide perspectives, refers to the first, early, junior and secondary years and also the youth and adult sectors. In view of the great importance attributed to the first and early years in literacy development, it was important for the strategy to give this age-group its due importance.

We need to catch them young, therefore the emphasis is on promoting a liking for and enjoyment of books from birth

Since the launch of the Literacy Strategy in 2014, the National Literacy Agency has striven to mobilise the necessary forces to bring about a culture change in the reading habits of the Maltese and Gozitans and to promote books. It is doing this primarily through its reading and family literacy programmes. The following are the major literacy programmes being run by the National Literacy Agency in full collaboration with schools, Malta Libraries, local councils and various community and parish centres:

• the very popular family literacy programme Aqra Miegħi/Read with Me for zero to three-year-olds run in 50 centres and involving over 16,000 children and their parents;

• Seħer l-Istejjer/The Magic of Stories for four- to nine-year-olds, involving over 5,000 children and their parents and teachers;

• The after-school family literacy programme Nwar offered in 10 colleges to about 300 children.

• The Reading Ambassadors campaign has reached out to 154 classes with 3,100 students.

• The drive to put 100 high-appeal readers in each classroom: Aqra Kemm Tiflaħ has involved so far 135 classes with 2,311 children and will be extended to 426 classes of 7,420 pupils by the end of 2016.

• The Reading Champions awards have recognised the efforts of 205 secondary students who have promoted reading among their peers.

• The Malta Writing Programme trained 650 teachers last year.

• The summer reading campaign: Aqra fis-Sajf organised 5,041 reading sessions for 12,000 children participating in SkolaSajf last year.

One of the main challenges for the national strategy has been to bring people to work together towards the same goals in a collaborative manner. Another challenge is to ensure continuity between mainstream and after-school programmes intended for the same children.

In order to address these issues, literacy teams were set up within each college in the State school system. These teams meet on a regular basis to plan and review policies, strategies and programmes. They seek to ensure better coordinated and more focused services at the school and classroom levels in order to cater for individual student needs.