WALTHAM FOREST: Library books appeal as child literacy levels fall

4:42pm Wednesday 5th December 2007

Comments (12)   Have your say »

BOOK lovers have called for local library policy to be changed after studies published this week found the educational standards of our children were declining.

England dropped from third to 19th in the 45-country league table of children's literacy levels which looked at reading, writing and comprehension among ten-year-olds.

The study, which was last conducted five years ago, found that England lagged behind Russia, Canada, the USA and Singapore, and several European states.

Investigators found that 37 per cent of our children played computer games far more than three hours a day and blamed parents and target and test-driven national policy for the decline.

A separate study of 57 countries showed that 15-year-olds had plummeted from 7th to 17th in reading in six years.

Ministers pledged £5m for new books in nurseries but parents in Waltham Forest said improvements need to be made closer to home.

IT professional David Slack, of Rectory Road, Walthamstow, said he worried about the educational cultural future for his children, Cora, four, Phoebe, five, and Tim, nine.

"There comes a point when you stop going to the library just because there is a lack of choice," he said. "As kids get older and get to secondary school, they have to do research and homework and their local library is somewhere to go to do that.

"We need a state of the art multi-media library for young and old people alike."

Artist and father Mark Hampson, who lectures at The Royal College of Art, was shocked when he could not find an illustrated children's bible in Walthamstow Central Library, after spending half-an-hour searching.

And the St James St Library campaigners have demanded that money be found in next year's budget to reopen their library, which they said was used by several schools.

"Children need libraries and libraries need books," said campaigner Caroline Molloy. "This is particularly critical for the academic success of children growing up in low income families.

"Computers in libraries are great, but no replacement for books. There is plenty of academic evidence that people take in information better from a printed page than a computer screen."