Reading as a competition Speaker's Corner

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9064341/Reading-a-book-adds-a-year-to-childrens-education.html

Reading a book 'adds a year to children's education'

Reading books for half an hour a day could be worth up to 12 months’ extra schooling by the age of 15, says Nick Gibb, the School Minister. The department of education has plans for a national reading competition for children. The idea is to boost literacy standards and encourage children to read. A recent international report showed that almost four-in-10 teenagers in England never read for pleasure. Critics criticised the move, because just recently, the Government cut costs on reading programmes and one-to-one tuition. These critics say that a competition “will not help the over 9000 children who miss out on one-to-one tuition this year, due to cuts to reading programmes.

The government probably thinks that parents, teachers, and foremost; children “will get spurred on by a bit of healthy competition”. I think it is just an easy way for the Government, driven by cutting costs, to give the responsibility for good education away. I believe the competition will work for children who already read books for pleasure. It’s a long way; from learning to read to compete in “who can finish the most books”. There are more ways to encourage children to read; there should be more time planned during school hours for reading. Why not start the day with half an hour of silence in the whole school, with everybody reading?