FORMER Prime Minister Edward Seaga is calling for an extra hour to be added to the school day specifically to teach children to read and write.

Seaga, who is now a distinguished fellow at the University of the West Indies (Mona), feels Jamaica will not solve the problem of illiteracy among its population until this is done.

“I myself don’t believe we will eradicate illiteracy until there is a programme set up that allows for an extra hour after school that is dedicated for the purpose of literacy training,” Seaga said last Thursday, during his address at the official opening of a 24-hour reading room at the Calvin McKain Library at the University of Technology (UTech) in St Andrew.

The former prime minister, however, feels encouraged by Jamaica’s progress towards full literacy, as judged by the latest results of the Grade Four Literacy Test.

“Three years ago, the results of that test were that 65 per cent of the students were able to master the skill of reading… 65 per cent is very low, but the better news is that in the last test 72 per cent have now mastered that skill,” he pointed out.

Seaga said the process of teaching children to read should be assisted by the introduction of 50 literacy specialists by the Ministry of Education.

The level of literacy among Jamaican adults is uncertain, but is estimated at about 75 per cent.

Thursday, Seaga also congratulated UTech on the introduction of the reading room, stating it would allow more students to access the materials of the library to the benefit of the country.

“It’s wonderful to see this new facility. I like to consider libraries to be museums, because museums are storehouses of artefacts, and books are artifacts of the mind,” he said.

The present building housing the Calvin McKain Library was built in 1983 and remodelled in 2000. It seats 600 persons and has approximately 114,900 volumes and access for more than 9,000 journals online.