With research revealing Australia’s literacy levels are falling below global standards, News Corp Australia and Australia Post have joined forces to encourage more children and parents to read, write and embrace the magic of storytelling.
Raise A Reader is News Corp’s consumer education and advocacy campaign, designed to highlight the importance of developing early literacy skills among Australian children and the critical role parents play as educators and role models in demonstrating a love for reading.
Toni Hetherington, national education publisher, News Corp Australia said: “We are proud to partner with Australia Post in this important initiative with The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier-Mail and The Advertiser alongside our regional mastheads. News Corp Australia will proudly be supporting this campaign from both an editorial and retail perspective.
“Literacy skills are fundamental in ensuring future success in our country. At News Corp, we understand that it is our responsibility to utilise our platforms to inspire more children to enjoy reading.
“Our journalists around the country will encourage their audiences and communities to ‘Raise A Reader’ through this strong editorial campaign.”
Raise a Reader complements the launch of Australia Post’s Legends stamp series, which recognises living Australians who have made an outstanding and inspirational contribution to Australia’s communities and culture. In 2019 this series recognises Australia’s leading children’s authors.
An exclusive survey of 1000 parents and grandparents commissioned by News Corp Australia found 86% of respondents wanted their children to spend more time reading books with more than 88% reading to their child at least once a week.
UNICEF has rated Australia as 39 out of 41 countries “in achieving quality education”. Nearly one in five Australian children are not meeting international benchmarks for reading, according to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study released in 2017 by the Australian Council for Educational Research, assessing grade four students from 50 countries around the world.