The Romanian Publishers' Association launches, on Wednesday, the "Pact for Reading".
"We are launching this "Pact for Reading" and we hope that, by gathering as many as possible under its umbrella, we will bring back reading among the everyday habits of children. Reading represents the foundation of education, in any field, ensures access to information and strengthens thinking," say the initiators, in the document, told Agerpres.
The "Pact for Reading" will be presented on Wednesday, but it can be signed at petitieonline.com/pactul_pentru_lectura until March 15.
All signatures will be attached to the document that will be submitted to the Presidential Administration and the Government.
The initiators will monitor the reaction of the current decision-makers and make it known to the general public, they will systematize and present those parts of the political programmes belonging to the political parties and candidates for the 2024 elections that concern reading and education.
"Romania has reach, in 2023, to an alarming level of functional illiteracy. According to the last three PISA assessments, more than 40pct of 15-year-old teenagers do not have the ability to understand what they read. In other words, after almost ten years spent in the education system in Romania, an overwhelming percentage of students have not acquired minimum skills in terms of their education. This picture becomes all the more dark when we have to add another statistic: every seventh student leaves school before finishing secondary school. Romania has the smallest book market in the entire European Union, with only 5 euros - 25 lei - per person spent annually on books. The consequences are extremely serious for the labour market and for social relations. While the large European book markets take measures consistent with the slightest sign of decrease, we do not even have the minimum outline of a national strategy to encourage reading among young people," the initiators of the Pact for Reading" show.