The fear that up to 1.5 million British children will
reach the age of 11 unable to "read well" by 2025 has prompted the launch
of the Read On. Get On campaign, aimed at making a radical improvement in
reading standards a key of politics and education in the next decade.
The campaign which is backed by a coalition of businesses, charities, bestselling authors and teaching professionals, is being spearheaded by Save the Children, the CBI and the Teach First charity and is unusual in the diversity of its supporters – including JK Rowling and Michael Morpurgo plus a host of book publishers, the Sun newspaper and the Premier League – all with the single aim of getting the main political parties to include “a commitment to improving reading” in their 2015 manifestos.
The campaign which is backed by a coalition of businesses, charities, bestselling authors and teaching professionals, is being spearheaded by Save the Children, the CBI and the Teach First charity and is unusual in the diversity of its supporters – including JK Rowling and Michael Morpurgo plus a host of book publishers, the Sun newspaper and the Premier League – all with the single aim of getting the main political parties to include “a commitment to improving reading” in their 2015 manifestos.