By Damion Mitchell, Staff ReporterTHE NEW champions of the National Reading Competition have been named.
But in an unusual occurrence there have been a tie for first place in one of the four categories of the competition.
At the national finals in the studios of Television Jamaica in St. Andrew on Wednesday, Abigail Morris from St. Thomas and Kathryn Graham from St. Ann were announced winners in the 12-14 category while Nidhi Thomas from Portland was declared the champion reader in the 6-8 group and her brother, Midhun, named winner in the 9-11 age group. Sophia Lee-Shu from Trelawny won in the adult category.
ESTABLISHMENT
The National Reading Competition, organised by the Jamaica Library Services (JLS) was established in 1988 with the 9-11 year-old category but expanded years later to include the 6-8, 12-14 and the adult categories, respectively.
According to Janet Cousins, acting director of the JLS' public library network, the quality of the participants have improved over the years.
On Tuesday Dr. Simon Clarke, chairman of the Jamaica Library Service, told the 13 parish champions in each of the four categories at an awards ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in New Kingston that with their success in the reading competition, there were still more goals to be attained.
"This is just the beginning," he said. "We are convinced of the very critical role that reading plays in the development of an individual."
SHORT CHANGE
Gleaner columnist Ian Boyne, in delivering the keynote address said, "If we cannot produce a set of people who are obsessed with learning, we would have short-changed ourselves."
According to Mr. Boyne, while more people were now attending learning institutions to become certified in their respective disciplines, the results were not satisfactory.
"People are better schooled but not better educated," he said, adding that this was evidenced by the inability of many certified persons to effectively communicate during job interviews, for example.
Mr. Boyne also criticised some of his colleagues from the media about what he said was their failure to emphasise the 'culture' that promotes knowledge.
