EDUCATION Secretary Armin Luistro yesterday urged the public to donate books, educational toys and other school supplies to children entering kindergarten this coming school year.

Luistro launched the donate-a-book campaign to help over 1.9 million kindergarten pupils learn how to read under the Department of Education’s K-12 program.

The K-12 system requires children to go through pre-school before entering Grade 1.

Luistro said the donation drive is a way of caring for the less-fortunate children.

He said if everybody donates a book, a typical kindergarten room will be transformed into a library that can better prepare the youngsters for  the real world of formal schooling and provide them greater chances to complete their education.

The K-12 education system is one of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s proposed educational reforms.

The program covers seven years of grade school and five years of high school.                    Alvin Murcia