Photos by Linny Folau

A national awareness campaign, 'Read with your Child' under a Pacific Early Age Readiness and Learning program (PEARL) was launched on 31 January, by Crown Princess Sinaitakala Tuku'aho, who encouraged families and parents to read to their children for 10 minutes daily because reading strengthens minds and opens up opportunities.

Tonga, where 35% of children are not being read to at home, is the first country in the Pacific to benefit from this program. The project aims to have 20% more children in Tonga being read to daily by the end of 2017.

PEARL is a regional program funded by the Global Partnership for Education managed by the World Bank.

Its goal is to help Pacific island countries identify the main issues affecting the school readiness of young children and the reasons hindering the delivery of effective teaching of reading and writing in the first grades of primary education. With this information, PEARL supports the development of evidence-based, locally-developed interventions to improve school readiness and early grade reading.

Tonga is the first country in the Pacific to benefit from this program, where the Tonga PEARL project is in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Training.

Currently there are daily television, radio as well as community outreach programs using town officers and church leaders to engage with local communities and provide them with information that would help them ensure daily reading with their child.

Future

At last week's launch, the Crown Princess said early childhood development is the key to our children's furutre success.

"Reading is important to the mind, it's what exercise is to the body because it strengthens our minds and opens up wonderous worlds of opportunities."

She said reading with children is a gift, which she believed has helped her because her parents read to her as a child many bedtime stories. Now she is a mother and reads to her toddlers, Taufa'ahau and Mata'aho, which she cherishes.

"It is not always easy to find time to read with our children. I am the first to admit that we may not have the time to read every single day but today we are reminded that 10 minutes makes a difference. Some studies showed that a child who reads 10 minutes a day can learn about 500,000 words a year and will be exposed to about half a million new words over the year," she said.

“Give this gift to our children so they can speak, read and understand better."

She asked community leaders to encourage families to take time to read to their children.

"I believe reading to our children is investing in their future. The readers of today could be tomorrow’s leaders."

She thanked the Ministry of Education, development partners, teachers and parents for their hard work.

The Minister of Education and Training Hon Penisimani Fifita commended the importance of this program for education and for our childrens' success.

Early reading

In an Early Childhood Development in Tonga, a World Bank Study Report stated PEARL began with the overall aim to support the Government of Tonga’s vision for early child care and education and the development of foundational literacy skills in the early reads.

The report had found reading with children and preschoolers positively impacts development. 

The impact of reading in the home environment is actually larger than that of attending preschool (that is, children who attend preschool but are not read to at home show poorer outcomes than those who are), among other important findings.

"Studies show 35% of children are not being read to at home, and many children are not prepared for school at age 6, so this is a national awareness drive to get parents, grandparents or even older siblings to ensure every child has someone to read with for atleast 10 minutes every day. Only 10 minutes a day that all it takes, said Magadalena Moimoi who is assisting the campaign.

The first phase of this campaign runs for two-months but it is an ongoing project and can run for up to two-years.