Primary schools are being urged to make a “pledge” to slash the ­unacceptable rate of illiteracy among children, amid concerns thousands arrive at secondary school lacking sufficient reading skills to learn.

The primary reading pledge, an initiative of reading education project Five from Five, LDA Australia and AUSPELD, aims “to reduce to near zero the number of children who finish primary school unable to read”.

Read more in article by Rebecca Urban in The Australian. News article by Jordan Baker in The Sydney Morning Herald.