‘Literacy begins at home’
PM urges parents, teachers to play greater role in getting children to read, tackle ignorance
Published:Wednesday | May 7, 2025 | 12:09 AMMickalia Kington/Gleaner Writer
Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness issued a call to action for parents, educators, and national leaders during Read Across Jamaica Day on Tuesday, stressing the critical role of literacy in navigating the information age.
Holness began by recalling his time as minister of education.
“In another incarnation, I was the minister of education, and I spent quite a bit of my time promoting literacy. Literacy is important for the development of any society,” he said.
The prime minister highlighted common misconceptions among parents about literacy, emphasising that reading was not just about recognising words.
“There are parents who are of the assumption that once their children are speaking, then they believe it is almost automatic that their children will be able to read,” Holness said. “And then there are some parents who may interrogate the situation a little bit more, and they may ask their child to put a few words together, and the child may be able to call the words but [may] not get meaning from the words that they have put together.”
He underscored the shared responsibility of teachers and parents in developing reading skills, stating: “The development of the literacy skill … is not only the responsibility of the teacher, which, oftentimes, is the person on whom the burden is placed. Literacy really begins at home with the parents.”
As influential figures read to students across the island, Holness described the initiative as an opportunity to “model this very important skill of reading”.
He added: “Important people, influential persons, politicians and lawyers and doctors and entertainers, and, of course, the teachers, will be out modelling reading to children in schools right across Jamaica.”
But the prime minister also used the occasion to address deeper concerns in the digital age.
“We are in the most rapid era of advancement in technology ever in known human history,” Holness stated. “There is so much knowledge. There is so much information. But yet there is so much ignorance in the world.”
Quoting Bob Marley’s Rat Race, he remarked, “In the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty.” He connected this to modern issues of misinformation, warning that “there are many persons in our society who are literate. They can read, but they are not media literate.”
MUST GO BEYOND BASIC LITERACY
Holness said the education system must go beyond basic literacy and “reinforce this higher-order skill in our population”.
“Schools not only have to teach literacy, the basic functioning skill of reading and writing, … but you have to also teach media literacy. What is valid and verified information, and, how do you get valid and verified information?” he said.
The prime minister emphasised the need for readiness in adopting artificial intelligence (AI).
“Artificial intelligence is something that Jamaica must embrace,” he said. “Very soon, we will have to rapidly incorporate artificial intelligence into our teaching and learning methodology … if our population is to keep apace with the developing world of work.”
The prime minister revealed that the Government has established an AI task force and plans to integrate AI into public bureaucracy and the education system.
“I look forward to doing my part in modelling literacy today,” Holness ended, referring to his reading of I Am A Promise, a book penned by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to the children.
Meanwhile, Garfield Morrison, regional training officer for Region 1, and Andrew Lee, CEO of E-Learning Jamaica, demonstrated interactive teaching tools that he said would be available in all primary and secondary schools islandwide.
Lee also noted plans to integrate coding and robotics.
“Our schools here will have access to the software that we use for coding. We will train the teachers on how to use it,” he said. “It will be able to detect the temperature in the room. So when a student … codes, they can code to find out the temperature in the room.”
He described the initiative as a way for students to see “technology working practically”.
Amid all the digital focus, Holness also reaffirmed the value of traditional reading.
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the traditional book,” he said. “When I was growing up, there was nothing more exciting than getting up and going to the library … . You have to bring them to life in your mind. So I still encourage books.”