The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the issue of academic deficiency, which now turned into a national concern of extreme learning poverty and learning loss among Filipinos. According to the World Bank, learning poverty implies a situation where children fail to read and comprehend a simple text or story by age ten. The World Bank continued that the Philippines is one of the countries with the highest level of learning poverty than the average in East Asia and the Pacific region, generally outranking all its ASEAN neighbors except Lao PDR.

Given this alarming scenario, it is now critical, more than ever, to amplify the importance of building a culture of intentional reading to help accelerate and recover learning. The National Book Week 2023 celebration will emphasize enrooting reading as part of every Filipino’s lifestyle– just like how taking a bath, brushing teeth, and eating have been part of our daily routine.

This year’s celebration will focus on three major components:
READ. A call to every Filipino to make reading a daily habit and part of one’s lifestyle.
REREAD. Raise intentional and proficient readers who frequently read not because they are required to but because it has become their instinctive action.
RELIVE. Experience rebirth of the mind through one reading material at a time, as reading allows us to live different lives all at once.
This year’s celebration’s main goal is to revive the genuine passion and love for reading daily; and to turn reading without a purpose into reading with a real purpose.

#NBW89 #NBW2023 #ReadRereadRelive