Short Opening Remarks for National Reading Month Celebration 2019

To our dear academic head and school principal, my co-program heads, teachers, and of course, our dear STIers, good morning!

Our English Language and National Reading Month Celebration has always been a two fold celebration –on one hand, a celebration of communication arts in a language used across various disciplines and fields, and on the other, a celebration of skills and competencies in reading.

Particularly with the other fold of this year’s celebration, our theme, Post-Trusth Reading: Discerning Facts from Fakes, is a call for everyone of us, especially our students who are at the frontline of digital media, to revisit our reading skills in the light of Post-Truth Era.

Yes, we are living already in the age where there seem to be the diminishing shared objective standards of truth and people seem to value much what is entertaining and humurous at the cost of truth. We need to be not just readers and communicators, rather critical readers and communicators.
Remember our 4 C’s. If you’re able to reflect on our theme and the entire event, all of them in fact are covered. Our use of digital media requires responsibility and accountability, hence Character. The changing digital landscape has always required us to be change-adept as well.

My dear students and colleagues, let us develop reading skills. Let us all be critical digital readers. Thank you very much and welcome to the STI’s 2019 English Language and National Reading Month Celebration!!!!