Petition for Library Network and Reading Plan Gathers Nearly 5,000 Signatures

In the document, which had 4,775 signatures as of 5:20 p.m. today, the petitioners argue that it is essential to ensure that these programs maintain their own team, budget, and identity autonomy, so as not to lose the strength and impact achieved over decades, and they express concern about the decision to integrate them into a new administrative structure.

The Government has already clarified that the RBE and the PNL will not be abolished, yet petitioners remain concerned, having launched the petition, with a renewed objective, to defend the autonomy and valorization of the RBE and the PNL, so that they continue to transform reading, education and culture in Portugal.

The guarantee of continuity of the projects after their integration into a new body was given by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI), on Friday, in response to doubts raised by the Portuguese Association of Librarians, Archivists, Information and Documentation Professionals (Bad).

“The current responsibilities of the Mission Structure of the National Reading Plan and the Coordinating Office of the School Library Network will be integrated into the new Institute of Education, Quality and Evaluation, continuing the respective PNL and RBE projects to promote reading,” he informed.

The RBE program was created in 1996 to “install and develop libraries in public schools at all levels of education, providing users with the resources necessary for reading, accessing, using and producing information in analog, electronic and digital formats.”

The PNL was launched a decade later as an "institutional response to concerns about the literacy levels of the population in general and of young people in particular, which are significantly lower than the European average", according to the Council of Ministers resolution that created it.

In the document, which had 4,775 signatures as of 5:20 p.m. today, the petitioners argue that it is essential to ensure that these programs maintain their own team, budget, and identity autonomy, so as not to lose the strength and impact achieved over decades, and they express concern about the decision to integrate them into a new administrative structure.

The Government has already clarified that the RBE and the PNL will not be abolished, yet petitioners remain concerned, having launched the petition, with a renewed objective, to defend the autonomy and valorization of the RBE and the PNL, so that they continue to transform reading, education and culture in Portugal.

The guarantee of continuity of the projects after their integration into a new body was given by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI), on Friday, in response to doubts raised by the Portuguese Association of Librarians, Archivists, Information and Documentation Professionals (Bad).

“The current responsibilities of the Mission Structure of the National Reading Plan and the Coordinating Office of the School Library Network will be integrated into the new Institute of Education, Quality and Evaluation, continuing the respective PNL and RBE projects to promote reading,” he informed.

The RBE program was created in 1996 to “install and develop libraries in public schools at all levels of education, providing users with the resources necessary for reading, accessing, using and producing information in analog, electronic and digital formats.”

The PNL was launched a decade later as an "institutional response to concerns about the literacy levels of the population in general and of young people in particular, which are significantly lower than the European average", according to the Council of Ministers resolution that created it.

In the document, which had 4,775 signatures as of 5:20 p.m. today, the petitioners argue that it is essential to ensure that these programs maintain their own team, budget, and identity autonomy, so as not to lose the strength and impact achieved over decades, and they express concern about the decision to integrate them into a new administrative structure.

The Government has already clarified that the RBE and the PNL will not be abolished, yet petitioners remain concerned, having launched the petition, with a renewed objective, to defend the autonomy and valorization of the RBE and the PNL, so that they continue to transform reading, education and culture in Portugal.

The guarantee of continuity of the projects after their integration into a new body was given by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI), on Friday, in response to doubts raised by the Portuguese Association of Librarians, Archivists, Information and Documentation Professionals (Bad).

“The current responsibilities of the Mission Structure of the National Reading Plan and the Coordinating Office of the School Library Network will be integrated into the new Institute of Education, Quality and Evaluation, continuing the respective PNL and RBE projects to promote reading,” he informed.

The RBE program was created in 1996 to “install and develop libraries in public schools at all levels of education, providing users with the resources necessary for reading, accessing, using and producing information in analog, electronic and digital formats.”

The PNL was launched a decade later as an "institutional response to concerns about the literacy levels of the population in general and of young people in particular, which are significantly lower than the European average", according to the Council of Ministers resolution that created it.