One in ten parents of schoolchildren in Flanders still has low literacy levels which can impact children's learning and development, a literacy campaign that kicks off on Monday said.
This year's Week of Literacy campaign, running from 9 to 15 September, says that 10% of parents of children under 13 years have "difficulty reading, writing, calculating" and using digital platforms.
"These skills are crucial to help your children grow and develop and to be involved in their schooling," a statement on the campaign's website reads.
The 2019 campaign pulls data from an international study conducted in 4o different countries which analysed the literacy and numeracy of people aged 16 to 65.
The study concludes that Flemish respondents' scores place them at around the same level as respondents in countries like Canada, Estonia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and is significantly outperformed by Japan, followed by Finland and the Netherlands.
Therefore, the campaign this year aims to boost schools' role in helping parents be more involved in their children's education, according to VRT.
"We target all primary schools in Flanders, there are hundreds of them," said Sara Jaminé, the campaign's project leader told VRT, adding: "Every Flemish school has some parents with literacy needs."
According to the outlet, some of these parents are wrongly thought to not want to be involved or interested in their children's education.
"They are parents who are eager to learn and work on it, [schools] can send those parents to one of the 13 centres for basic education in Flanders that support and strengthen" literacy skills, she said.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
