- 250 schools, 14,000 students sign up for new national newspaper initiative
- ‘Press Pass’ launched in conjunction with Department of Education
- Scheme includes exciting national journalism competition for students
National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) has teamed up with the Department of Education to launch ‘Press Pass’, a major initiative for Transition Year students around Ireland. The initiative was launched today by NNI along with Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn.
The project will see NNI delivering free national and regional newspapers to more than 14,000 students over a two-week period. The newspapers will be read and shared around classrooms, with an accompanying Press Pass workbook designed to give students a better idea of how newspapers operate and how they can be used as an educational resource.
“Almost 70 per cent of 15-18 year olds in Ireland regularly read a newspaper, which puts our teenagers amongst the most avid newspaper readers anywhere in Europe,” said Matt Dempsey, Chairman NNI. “Irish teenagers are already very comfortable with the newspaper medium and we think that bringing them into classrooms is an idea that will really appeal to Transition Year students.”
NNI’s Director of Newspapers in Education (NiE) and Sustainability, Enda Buckley, said: “Reading newspapers is a fantastic way for young people to improve their reading and writing skills, while also developing ‘real life’ knowledge of our society and our world. Many international studies confirm this, including recent studies in Finland (2010, 2007) and Brazil (2009), which found increased improvement in reading achievement levels in children who used the newspaper in class in comparison with those who did not.
“We’re delighted that so many schools have signed up for Press Pass and I’d like to thank the Department of Education for their assistance and advice throughout the planning stages,” Mr Buckley added.
Launching the initiative, Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn said: “We’re very happy to lend our support to NNI’s Press Pass initiative, which is an excellent idea and something that will benefit students on a number of different levels. In particular, the strong yet practical focus on reading and writing should help to improve literacy standards for those students taking part.”
National writing competition
As part of the Press Pass initiative, participating Transition Year classes will receive a free supply of daily, weekly, Sunday and regional newspapers from all the NNI titles. In tandem, they will also receive free Press Pass workbooks with a range of practical examples and exercises to improve their literary skills.
The free workbook delves into the five language types – information, argument, narration, persuasion and aesthetic – that form the basis of the Leaving Certificate English course, as well as giving students practical insights into five key areas of newspaper journalism: news, sport, features, analysis/comment and photojournalism.
In addition to learning more about newspapers and journalism, students will also have the opportunity to enter a national writing competition, with the best work set to be published across all NNI titles in the New Year.
“This is the really exciting part of Press Pass, an opportunity to see one’s work published in some of Ireland’s leading newspapers,” said Mr Dempsey. “I think anyone with an interest in writing and the media is going to love this, and of course for NNI it’s also an opportunity to unearth some of the country’s most talented young writers and budding journalists.”
Press Pass begins in participating schools on Monday, 24 September 2012.
A copy of the Press Pass workbook can be found here.
For further information please contact Enda Buckley
Tel: 0868112757
