The Director of Bermuda College's Education Centre last night called for all sections of the community to go "out into the trenches'' to help tackle the Island's illiteracy problems.

Gina Tucker said the whole Island had to pull together to ensure children can read properly.

Speaking at the "Focus on Literacy Seminar'' at Bermuda College the day after Government statistics confirmed Bermudian children fall far behind their US counterparts when it comes to reading, she said it was time to "rally the whole village''.

Dr. Tucker referred to the 1984 US Commission on Reading which pointed the way to improving literacy rates. Nothing had changed in the past 15 years despite all the lessons that should have been learned, she said.

Dr. Tucker said when Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959 he rounded up people who could read and sent them into the trenches to tackle the nation's chronic illiteracy problems.

"We are not Communists so we can't literally round people up, but if today's news articles (on literacy problems) don't cut deep and people don't say we must start rounding people up and sending them into the trenches to cut through this, I don't know what will,'' she said.

She said it was essential that parents talk to their pre-school children in an adult way to improve their language base.

Dr. Tucker said people would say parents are struggling to put food on the table or keep a roof over their families' heads so they could not be expected to spend time reading to their children.

But she argued: "That is the scenario we have. If in these first three years we don't attempt language development, what do we expect to happen by grade five? That foundation isn't there.

"We have to take a no-fault approach. We don't have time to waste blaming anyone anymore. Let's stop saying it's the teachers' or the parents' fault.

It's our fault because we let it happen.

"We all have to take responsibility for it. We need an inclusive, comprehensive strategy that is systematic and spirited, one which has like Castro's people going out to the trenches for real because we have a community out there. We have to rally the whole village.

"We have to hit the problem from many angles. If we focus on education alone we will be in intervention mode, always trying to fix it.

"We need to begin to pull all our resources -- education, social services, other Ministries, community projects, community schools and reading clinics -- and bit by bit keep chipping away.'' EDUCATION ED