The new National Book and Reading Plan will start on July 14 with the meeting of the National Reading Council. From here, a first Driving Group and between ten and fifteen working groups will be formed, which are the ones that will have to make a diagnosis and make proposals in each area. The Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, recalls that although there have already been other plans (2008, 2012, 2017), this is the first to be promoted directly by the Government, and also wants to be channeled from the outset with the Department of Education and the book and reading sector, in a network of interests and complicities.
From the Ministry of Education, the director general of Inclusive Education and Languages, Susana Naranjo, insists on the fact that although it is not the first project in which they go together with Culture, "it is strategic for the country", because through reading aims to "achieve equal opportunities" and an improvement in academic success through increased reading competence.
The director of Institució de les Lletres Catalanes, Izaskun Arretxe, explains that they want to make a critical review of what has been done so far, a first process that will last a year, with the participatory methodology to reach a double date, 2025 and 2030, to fully develop it. With the involvement of the sector, the Institution hopes to arrive at "a diagnostic document and some priority proposals, budgeted, with the established calendar and with monitoring and evaluation indicators". Arretxe highlights the importance of having incorporated Montse Ayats as the person in charge of the plan, among other reasons because she has great capacity to find consensus that will be necessary. Precisely the fact that it is based on a participatory methodology means that the initiatives will have to be approached from various points of view. "We are aligned and now we have to work hard," she summarizes.
"We have to work as a network, which is what allows us to move forward," says Ayats, who proposes the plan with the aim of increasing the rates of reading habits, from 69.9%, to those that would be comparable to countries like Denmark. , of 82%. Some data that during the pandemic in Spanish increased strongly, but in Catalan they did so to a lesser extent, one more reason to especially influence reading in this language. The initial budget of the plan is 106,682 euros.
Catalan version, here
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