PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — MP Romou said “As we know, Thursday September 8th, 2022 is International Literacy Day and in honor of this spectacular day, I have launched the “Reading is LIT! with MP Romou” reading program. This initiative is not only for the entire month of September,
MP Romou will be dedicating her free time, every Monday morning, and any other day where permissible to reading to our youth, in an effort to further promote the importance of literacy in our primary schools, foster Homes and after school programs.
MP Romou started this month reading at the Sister Marie Laurence Primary School where she adopted a class and has committed to reading to this class for the entire 2022/2023 school year. She also donated a series of books to the school from local Author Tamara Leonard as she said it is very important for our youth to make a connection with our local authors.
MP Romou will also donate the books to other schools and foster homes as she stated that these books deal with topics such as manners, respect and having an attitude of gratitude, topics which MP Romou hold in high regard and are topics which MP Romou always talk about in her motivational speeches.
MP Romou quoted UNESCO as they established International Literacy Day in 1966 to raise awareness about the value of education as a matter of human rights and dignity. Literacy which is the ability to read and write as quoted “is arguably the single most important factor in determining a person’s career. Persons who can read and write, has a larger range of possible vocations and even highly skilled, high-paying careers are within reach once one is literate. Persons who cannot read and write, have extremely limited options and even unskilled minimum-wage jobs can then be difficult to obtain as well.
International Literacy Day is observed to bring to light the concerns for the global and domestic literacy issues that exist. Despite significant improvements in literacy rates during the more than 50 years since the first International Literacy Day, illiteracy is still a major issue on a global scale. It is estimated that more than 750 million adults worldwide are illiterate, however the number of our literate youth shows promise as it is on the rise, which sets the global literacy rate on a whole, reasonably high, with the literacy rate for all males and females that are at least 15 years old estimated at 86.3%.
In closing MP Romou stated that as an educator at heart promoting reading has always been a passion and indicated that she will continue to do her part and continue to promote literacy and continue to help in every way possible to ensure that our youth continue to read and see the importance thereof.
