Anthony Minott photos - Grade one teacher Madge Smith (at left in back row), is joined by literacy coordinator, Lisa Gaye Anderson, right, in back row, chairperson for the Junior Optimist Octogon International (JOOI), Caribbean District.

In an attempt to place greater emphasis on literacy, Independence City Primary, in a historic move, recently hosted its first ever literacy fair.

The theme for the day's proceedings was 'Literacy 1,2,3'.

Each grade had individual slogans.

Literacy lights the way

Grade one shouted: "Read! It's fun"; Grade two said: "I Love To read and used a heart to symbolise love; Grade three told the audience: "Literacy lights the way"; Grade four said: "Literacy, the way forward"; Grade five added, "Explore through Literacy" and Grade Six encouraged those on hand to "Conquer Ignorance with literacy."

Alison Mendez, school-based literacy coordinator, said the goals of the literacy fair was to "heighten students' awareness of literacy, sentitise students to the different aspects/strands of literacy, and to engage students in a range of meaningful literacy activities. She said all these were met by the school.

Students were quite excited

The literacy fair was sanctioned by the regional literacy coordinators from the Ministry of Education.

Grade one teacher, Madge Smith, read stories to grades one and two, which were well received by the youngsters.

Sangster's Book stores, Kingston Bookshop, and The Stationery Place, located in the Portmore Mall, were the booth holders, selling books and giving students advice on the type of books to choose. Latoya Coke from Sangster's Bookstore said the students were delighted when they saw the variety of books on sale.

"Students were quite excited about the different books we had on sale. We didn't just carry books for children, we also had books for teachers as well," she said. There were teachers feasting their eyes on Beverly Manley's book, Manley Memoirs.

Good Response

Marcia Miller of the Book and Stationery Place said the response was good. She noted that students were mainly going after colouring and word search books, while others had a liking for story books.

Earlier in the day, Lisa-Gaye Anderson, chairperson for the Junior Optimist Octagon International (JOOI), Caribbean District, presented the Junior Optimists at the school with a cheque for their hard work on a project which included the organisation.

The Junior Optimists, repre-sented by their president, Tia Howard, also presented books to teacher-librarian Celine Mais.

"I am pleased to see that the Junior Optimist Club is being encouraged here," Anderson said. "I implore students to read, read, read. Knowledge is power. Education is the key to fight against illiteracy."