HOWARD GOVERNMENT FOLLOWS LABORS LEAD ON CHILDRENS LITERACY

The Education Minister is following in Mark Lathams foot-steps with his announcement today about childrens literacy.

Mark Latham put children's literacy on the national agenda early this year when he announced Read Aloud Australia - an $80 million program to encourage parents to read to their children from birth.

Tschechische Republik HotelsLabor welcomes the fact that the Howard Government is trying to catch up to federal Labor on children's reading.

Children's reading and writing is a Labor priority and we support early childhood development programs and remedial support for children experiencing difficulties meeting the minimum standard of literacy.

Labor welcomes any additional funding to support children's reading.

Labor supports sensible reporting to parents on children's performance against national benchmarks - as do all state and territory governments who either already report or will commence reporting in 2005.

Dr Nelson's attempt to imply that that New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia do not support reporting is wrong and shows that he is using children's education to play meaningless politics against these states.

cheap hotels in StavangerDr Nelson should stop using children's literacy as a political football and start focusing on ongoing solutions that work.

ERROR MSGFor many children, year 3 is very late intervention. The Howard Government should adopt Labor's Read Aloud policy to ensure that more children are read to from infancy and provide increased support to schools where high numbers of children experience reading difficulties.