300,000 learners celebrate National Reading Day
Education
By
Harrison Ngola
| Jul 22, 2024
About 300,000 learners and 6,000 Reading Ambassadors united across the country to celebrate the inaugural National Reading Day.
The event which was organised by Start a Library Trust, aimed to break the World Record for the Most People Reading Aloud from the Same Text at the Same Time in Different Venues.
The Executive Director of Start a Library Trust Evelyne Mwandia, said, book reading remains one of the greatest sources of knowledge.
For any society to prosper, the populace has to develop a craving and urge to know.
"Today is a very important Literacy Day, the National Reading Day, we have celebrated this by having the National Read Aloud, which is a celebration of the importance of literacy and reading," she said.
In an interview with The Standard, Mwandia emphasised that for a nation to develop, the human mind has to be empowered.
She said one of the best ways to empower people is through exposure to books.
"National Read Aloud is a gathering of children across the country to read from the same text at the same time in multiple locations. These exercises simply play a major role in the child's ability to grasp important information during class time and even in their own free time," she said.
Mwandia noted that more than 3,000 schools across the country participated in the National Read Aloud which was declared by President William Ruto.
Celine Kamau a student at Langata Road Primary School said that reading has made her fluent during engagement with her parents, friends, and teachers.
"My literature marks improved positively and through book reading, I have learned a lot about climate change, such as what not to do and what to do," she said.
Kalekye Mumo a reading Ambassador highlighted the importance of reading aloud to Kenyans.
Speaking at Langata Road Primary, Mumo said public speaking starts from such celebrations and urged parents to educate their children on climate change.
"One of the things that people ask is, how did you get to be so good at speaking in public? It started by reading. You read a lot and then you start reading out aloud and then you get used to the sound of your voice and you're able to deliver," she said.
According to Start a Library Trust, the current record for the most record-breaking national reading day held by the United States stands at 223,363 participants in 909 venues.
Kenya unofficially surpassed this record with 229,034 children in 1097 schools across the counties.
With this year's theme being "Combating climate change," participants engaged in reading aloud; with an excerpt from "Kijiji Cha Ukame," a Kiswahili book addressing climate change.
According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics 2014, youth literacy rates in the population aged 15 to 24 in Kenya were at 86.53 per cent and 1.2 million people were illiterate in Kenya.
In 2014, the World Bank ranked Kenya's adult literacy level at 79 per cent with a global average level of 86.
The national reading day seeks to strengthen the child's ability and know how to combat climate change which has been a key issue to the country.
President Ruto has called for concerted efforts to plant trees to attain the 15 billion national target by 2032.