News item | 10/30/2023 | 12:00
To increase children’s enjoyment of reading and thus improve their reading skills, libraries will collaborate more intensively with schools and childcare. Minister Paul (Primary and Secondary Education) and State Secretary Uslu (Culture and Media) have made a total of 74 million euros available for this over the next three years. Reading experts from the local library will help schools and daycare centers to inspire children to read, including by significantly expanding existing book collections.
Experts in reading pleasure
Minister Paul: “Learning to read well is super important and actually a lot of fun. How nice is it to have a library nearby with many different books, with different themes and reading levels. By allowing libraries to collaborate with schools and childcare, we simultaneously ensure that it becomes even easier for children to borrow many books often. I am very pleased with that.”
State Secretary Uslu: “Libraries are experts in reading and reading pleasure. They have a lot of knowledge of the collection, the phases and preferences of readers and can offer a suitable offer. When children and young people are really absorbed in a story, the book fascinates them and they want to read it in one go. And that improves their deep and critical reading skills. In addition, the library is the place where you always get inspired.”
Equality of opportunity
In concrete terms, 1,800 daycare centers and schools in primary education, pre-vocational secondary education and practical education can collaborate with the library for the first time. In addition, more than 6,000 childcare locations and schools can further expand their existing collaboration with the local library.
They receive (additional) support from so-called reading consultants. For example, these experts help students choose a book that suits them, provide support in organizing reading activities and work with school teams to see what is needed to help students pick up a book more quickly. They can also provide support if a school wants to draw up a reading plan and help build or expand a library collection. Schools that need this most because they have a relatively large number of students at risk of learning delays receive extra support.
How?
These plans are part of the programs BookStart and the library at school. These were developed by Stichting Lezen, in collaboration with the KB, national library and are implemented by provincial and local library organizations. The Reading Foundation distributes the money among the libraries and, together with the libraries and schools, monitors the development of students’ reading behavior and reading pleasure.
Basic skills master plan
To ensure that students learn to read better, among other things, the government previously launched the Basic Skills Master Plan. Primary and secondary schools can apply for subsidies to work on improving the basic skills of their students. In addition to reading, it also concerns writing, arithmetic, digital skills and citizenship. Strengthening the collaboration of libraries with schools and childcare is part of this and is paid for from the master plan budget. A total of 459 million euros will be available for this in 2023, increasing to 678 million euros structurally per year from 2027.