Education Secretary Armin Luistro INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
By reading a book, you can do anything, even fly to the moon.
Education Secretary Armin Luistro called on schoolchildren Tuesday to grab a book and start reading, saying the written word could stir their imagination and take them even to places that seem impossible.
Speaking at the Inquirer Read-Along Festival Tuesday, a visibly impressed Luistro also broached the idea of working with the newspaper and other partners to turn the inaugural event into a nationwide project next year.
The festival was held as part of the Philippine Daily Inquirer鈥檚 yearlong celebration of the 25th founding anniversary of the country鈥檚 No. 1 newspaper and in line with National Reading Month.
鈥淵ou can do anything if you know how to read. It allows us to enter a world not available to us, even fly to the moon,鈥� Luistro told a gathering of elementary school students from around Metro Manila, at the GT Toyota Asian Center inside the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City.
鈥淏ooks allow us to enter an imaginary world, a new world.聽 The key is reading. If we know how to read, we can enter many worlds, imaginary, real, futuristic,鈥� the official said.
Luistro, who spearheads the Department of Education鈥檚 program 鈥淓very Child A Reader鈥� to promote reading among students, stressed the importance of this basic skill in child development.
鈥淢ore than any other time, I鈥檝e seen that the most critical among all the areas (of learning) is really reading. Because unless the foundation of reading鈥攃ompetence, comprehension, critical thinking鈥攊s there in the beginning, promoting children to different levels is really useless,鈥� Luistro added in an interview.
鈥淭o me it鈥檚 so important that we do not promote any child to the next [grade] level unless the reading skills for their level are mastered,鈥� he said.
Seeing the Inquirer Read-Along Festival, Luistro said he was 鈥渃onvinced even more that this is something that the department should be doing even more.鈥�
He said the education department was looking at partnering with the paper and other organizations to scale up a similar activity where students not only get to listen to stories but also compete in storytelling among themselves.
鈥淧art of the reason I came here [is that] I want to see the different activities being done. We鈥檙e brainstorming and I told the Inquirer (that) next year let鈥檚 partner and make this nationwide,鈥� Luistro said.
鈥淸Let鈥檚 turn it into] a real festival, where every province has read-along sessions done simultaneously. We could really expand it.鈥�