Literacy project needs funds

As Southland's successful literacy project heads into its fourth year, funding is being sought to ensure it continues.

Invercargill East Rotary literacy committee chairman Neil Lewis said the club initially committed to a three-year term and had managed to provide the packs for a fourth year when other Rotary clubs contributed funding.

Since 2009, 4800 packs had been given out at a cost of about $50,000 a year. They contain storybooks, a whiteboard and marker pen, magnetic letters, information and a DVD for parents and are given to 5-year-olds when they start school in Southland.

The packs were given to new-entrant pupils to get to "the crux of the issue" in a bid to improve literacy, Mr Lewis said.

Trade and industry had noticed several people, particularly teenagers, applying for jobs who had literacy problems, he said.

It had been a successful and rewarding project to be involved with, but its future was dependent on funding, Mr Lewis said.

A research project into the packs, undertaken by a team at the University of Otago College of Education, will be completed later this year. The project was carried out over two years and looks at the impact the packs have had on children and their families.

kimberley.crayton-brown@stl.co.nz

- © Fairfax NZ News

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