Thousands of kids take part in next chapter of Readathon

THOUSANDS of young people across Ireland hit the books yesterday, in aid of a good cause.

The sponsored ‘Readathon’, is designed to encourage young people to read more and raise cash for MS sufferers at the same time.

Some of Ireland’s best known literary figures, including acclaimed author Maeve Binchy, gave their support to the event at St Laurence O’Toole’s Girl’s National School in Dublin.

Around 35,000 young people are expected to read more than half a million books, with the money going towards the 7,000 people in Ireland who suffer from MS.

Information packs will also be given to young people, to help educate them about MS.

“There are no more magical doors you can open for a child than by encouraging that child to read,” said Maeve Binchy.

“A whole magical world lies out there waiting for children. All they need is a little bit of enthusiasm and encouragement”.

The Readathon, which is sponsored by Specsavers, also has the support of Education Minister Mary Hanafin.

Every child entering receives a certificate and a small thank-you gift, while 10% of the money raised in a school can be kept to buy books or reading aids.

Meanwhile, the National Adult Literacy Agency and the Irish Vocational Education Association have called for a concerted strategy to effectively tackle the adult literacy problem to be included in the National Development Plan (NDP) 2007-2013.

They urged national planners to implement the recommendations of the Oireachtas Education Committee’s report, which sets a target of reducing the proportion of the population at the lowest level of literacy by half in the next 15 years.

It suggested the NDP should increase literacy funding to €100million a year by 2013 and devote increased funding to doubling the number of people taking literacy classes and the number of training hours available to them.