Help your kids Join the Current with these helpful tips
More than 70 per cent of Singaporean teenagers aged 10 to 14 rarely or never read, watch or listen to the news and one in three of them are not curious about world events.
Yet, their parents think otherwise, with 63 percent of them reporting that their children tune in to the news every one or two days.
These are the key findings from a survey of 300 upper primary and lower secondary students and 300 parents, conducted by four Nanyang Technological University (NTU) students as part of a news literacy campaign, Join The Current.
Family Encouragement is Key
Four NTU students, Ms Lynette Teo, Ms Fiona Tan, Ms Miranda Yeo and Ms Natalie Huam (front, left to right) are championing current affairs literacy among teens.
Join The Current is a news literacy campaign aimed at engaging teens aged 10 to 14 to take an interest in current affairs and identify as a global citizen. Their campaign also focuses on information literacy to help teens navigate complexities of new media.
Among the reasons teens cited for not keeping up with the news, a lack of interest was the most common at 80 per cent.
Of all the sources teens turned to for news information, the most commonly cited was “family”, highlighting the importance that parents play in encouraging their children to develop a news reading habit.
To help you get started on encouraging your children to read more about current affairs, here are 20 ways to Join the Current.
For more information, visit Join the Current’s website, Facebook page and Instagram page.
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