Reading competition opens at library

Opening ceremonies were held this morning for a competition that promises to take young eyes off the tube and into a good book. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods reports from the Leo Bradley Library on this year’s National Story Reading Contest.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

The competition promotes reading, boosts students’ confidence, promotes Belizean literature, encourages healthy competition and makes primary school children more aware of the importance of using libraries. Now in its second year, the contest has proven popular with students.

Myrtle Myvett, Asst. Librarian, National Library Service

“There has been increased. Last year we had the competition where the primary schools in the district towns participated. But this year, we have gone national including rural areas, so the primary schools nationwide will be participating in this contest.”

The children will be judged on a number of criteria including fluency, diction, intonation, overall expression and clarity. The boys and girls are not allowed to use a microphone; instead the students must firmly project their own voices… a skill that some students had difficulty mastering in their first presentations.

Myrtle Myvett

“Our theme we have chosen is: Reading is Development and Development is Reading. And if children don’t know how to read, then they will not develop educationally, so it will help their

development; get children to want to read.”

…And over three hundred students from standard one to standard six will be reading stories including a number of Belizean selections. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.

The zone eliminations conclude on November fifteenth, followed by the district and final rounds on November twenty-first and twenty-eighth.