The National Literacy Agency, in collaboration with the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation, is continuing the Books Are Children’s Friends/Il-Kotba Ħbieb tat-Tfal initiative for the 2024–2025 scholastic year. This nationwide programme ensures that every primary school child receives carefully selected books in both Maltese and English, helping them build their own personal library and fostering a lifelong love for reading.
Launched in December 2023 and pledged in the Malta Flimkien Electoral Manifesto, the initiative continues to reach thousands of children across state, church, and independent schools. Since its inception, to date it has provided 17,834 students with a total of 71,336 books, reinforcing the importance of literacy in early education.
As part of this year’s rollout, a special book distribution event was held at Mġarr Primary School, where Minister Clifton Grima and Permanent Secretary Matthew Vella personally handed out books to Year 5 students. Both Dr Grima and Mr Vella conversed with and read to a Year 5 class as did author Ms Rita Saliba. Reading Ambassadors from the National Literacy Agency did the same with the Year 6 classes.
This scholastic year, the initiative has reached most children in Year 1 and will continue reaching the remaining children in this year group as well as those in Year 5 across Malta and Gozo, contributing to children’s access to quality reading material that nurtures a love for books.
