Save libraries to end education inequality, top author urges PM
HOW To Train Your Dragon author Cressida Cowell is demanding an end to “library poverty” where some primary schools have great provision while others have none at all.
She has written to Boris Johnson calling for change – and her letter has also been signed by top children’s writers Michael Rosen and Sir Quentin Blake.
Cressida, who is the Children’s Laureate, said: “Every prison has a statutory library, but one in eight primary schools has no library space at all. And the poorest children in the most deprived schools are most likely to be without books.”
She said £100million a year was needed to bring the worst schools up to the same standard as the best.
This would give children from poorer backgrounds the same chance in life as those from more affluent areas.
Her open letter to the Prime Minister says the gap is “stark, worrying and urgent”.
‘Book poverty denies them the chance to change their future’
It goes on: “It is heartbreaking to see just how unevenly this fundamental opportunity is distributed.”
Cressida is calling on the Government to “reverse the spiralling inequality in education” by putting primary school libraries “at the heart of our long-term response to the pandemic”.
She said: “The devastating impact on the most disadvantaged schoolchildren is not going to be remedied with a quick fix. We must properly invest in their future at this pivotal moment.”
Cressida, 55, cited the PE and sport premium, introduced in 2013, which is given to primary schools to improve physical education.
She said: “Surely the opportunity to become a reader for pleasure is just as important? How is it fair that some children are being given this immeasurable advantage in life, but stark book poverty means many more are denied this same chance to change their future?
“I have visited primary schools across the country over my 20-year career as an author-illustrator and it is heartbreaking to see just how unevenly this fundamental opportunity is distributed.
“So often the children who need books the most are in schools that cannot provide them with even an adequate school library, let alone a good one.” Cressida also announced plans for an initiative by the BookTrust called Life-changing Libraries.
Over the course of a year, six primary schools in England, which have at least 25 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals, will be helped to develop a “reading for pleasure” culture. A library of 1,000 books will be created in Benwick primary, March, Cambs, Dinnington community primary in Rotherham, Griffin primary in Wandsworth, south-west London, Saviour C of E primary in Manchester, Darlington’s Skerne Park primary and Woodchurch C of E primary, on Wirral.
BookTrust chief executive Diana Gerald said: “It’s impossible to overstate the life-changing impact that books have on a child’s life prospects, their mental health, wellbeing, self-esteem and educational achievement.
“It can drive social mobility and mitigate the effect of social inequality.”