National Reading Plan
The National Reading Plan is a Government initiative, of the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, jointly with the Ministry of Culture and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs.
This is a response to the concern on the literacy levels of the population in general, especially that of young people, which is significantly lower than the European average.
The main objective of the National Reading Plan is to raise the level of literacy of the Portuguese people and to place the country on a par with its European partners.
It is aimed at creating the conditions for the Portuguese people to achieve reading levels in which they feel that they are fully capable of deal with written words, under any circumstances of life, and can interpret the information made available by the media, access scientific knowledge and enjoy the great novels of Literature.
The National Reading Plan has the following objectives:
• Promote reading, considering it an essential element in individual development and national progress
• Create a social environment is favorable to reading
• Make an inventory and valorize educational practices and other activities stimulating pleasure in reading amongst children, young persons and adults
• Create instruments enabling the definition of increasingly more precise targets for the development of reading
• Enrich the skills of social players, developing both the formal and informal action of teachers and reading mediators
• Consolidate and increase the role of the Public Library Network and School Library Network in developing reading habits
• Gradually achieve better results in national and international studies evaluating literacy.
It will be implemented through a set of strategies aimed at promoting the development of skills in reading and writing, as well as the broadening and deepening of reading habits, especially among school populations.
A Plan focusing on the development of reading as a political priority and a national goal should have various strategic lines:
- Broaden and diversify actions promoting reading within school, family and other social contexts
- Contribute to the creation of a social environment favorable to reading
- Ensure training and support tools
- Make an inventory, and optimize resources and skills
- Create and maintain and information and evaluation system
- Principles for the Promotion of Reading
In addition to the programs to promote reading which have been launched within the context of the Plan, it is hoped that multiple and various initiatives will appear spontaneously, with a local, regional and national scope, carried out by civil society organizations, professionals and volunteers.
If responsibility is taken on collectively, the country will be led to a higher level in a faster and better way.
It is hoped that the public discussion on the proposals and the effects of the National Reading Plan and the disclosure, through the media, of the results of its studies will contribute to creating a social environment favorable to the broadening of cultural habits in the area of books and reading. But it is also hoped that multiple and various initiative arise spontaneously, of local, regional and national scope, in the public and private sector spheres, carried out by civil society organizations, professionals and volunteers.
The Ministries jointly responsible for the Plan define the technical and financial resources for the execution of the respective programs.
It wasn't possible to access the necessary and reliable information. Neverthless the maintenance of the plan over several years means that it's still considered important and necessary and even if some changes have been introduced it still remains close to its original basis. A new plan is beeing envisaged.