Booktrust and Bookstart and the cut in government funding.

You might have heard that funding for Bookstart, a programme to give books to young children, is being axed. According to The Guardian:

Booktrust, the independent charity set up to encourage reading, is to lose all government funding for its children's gifting programmes Bookstart, Booktime and Booked Up, in England, it was announced today.

Whilst the aims of Bookstart are undoubtably laudable, having experienced the bookgifting side as a parent I would suggest that the books probably largely go to families who are already highly literate and are therefore a questionable use of resources. I'd rather the money was spent on smaller classes in early years provision in catchment areas with poor literacy track records, in the current economic crisis.

You can read here about how in my town the first book gift worked well, the second was an accident, and the third (aimed at three year olds and at a cruicial point in reading development) was entirely down to my child attending the right play group and my using the library. Reaching stay-at-home parents with poor literacy it was not.

Comments

[Verity]

Interesting - at library school we had a visit from one of the coordinators (in the Bristol area) and she said that there was a lot of evidence that it does improve literacy... I do think you are probably right though that it is the most literate families that benefit!

[Juxtabook]

Glad to hear it is working in the Bristol area anyway! Like many things, just because it is a good idea in theory, it does not mean it works on the ground, nor that it is the best use of the money if the aim is improved literacy. I would rather harrang the government to keep the same sum and use it on literacy projects than just say "keep bookstart" without thought (not that's what you're doing, but I think some celebs just jump on the bandwagon without thought). It looks as if it is saved now anyway.