[Opinion] Children’s Newspapers

Korea and the rest of the world always show tremendous interest in the Program for International Student Assessment conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This is because the annual assessment measures the scholastic abilities of 15-year olds in some 60 countries, presenting a rough sketch of a nation’s future for the next 20 years. Students are evaluated in reading, math and scientific literacy, and problem solving. The results of reading literacy come at the top of the report. This could be because the ability to comprehend text quicker and more accurately is considered to be the most important academic skill.

In the United States, the educational reform “No Child Left Behind” aims to improve the reading and math abilities of every student in the country. Still, reading ability is at the very front. Advanced countries stress reading because they say students who lag behind in that subject cannot excel in others. The more one reads, the more brain activity is stimulated, improving the ability to think and criticize. Thus, reading ability is essential in establishing a knowledge-based democratic society.

The best way of improving reading skills, which cannot be done overnight, is making reading part of one’s daily routine. Print media, however, are losing ground because of the flood of audio-visual contents. This is particularly true in Korea, where Internet use is high. An effective alternative is to make students comfortable with newspapers from an early age. Education authorities should take the initiative and recommend reading newspapers to children. The Roh Moo-hyun administration, however, hampered this idea as its education minister banned group subscriptions to children’s newspapers by schools.

The Education Ministry accepted the National Teachers and Educational Workers` Union’s opposition to such subscriptions, citing that certain schools took monetary contributions from newspapers in return for subscriptions. This was too radical, considering that the government could have simply banned kickbacks from newspaper companies. Also suspicious was the fact that major newspapers publishing children’s editions were critical to the Roh administration. The Korea Elementary School Principals’ Association has requested the ministry to allow group subscriptions to children newspapers at schools. Surveys also say 98 percent of principals and 96 percent of parents favor group subscriptions. Education authorities will have to explain who is responsible for turning students away from reading newspapers. They must also speed up the normalization of the misguided educational environment so that children can have easy access to newspapers.

Editorial Writer Hong Chang-sik, chansik@donga.com