AAP
Children in the first years of their schooling will be the focus of a reading blitz under new learning measures announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The program will use the teaching of phonics, which involves sounding out letters to children to help students develop basic reading skills, as part of measures to improve literacy levels.
Ms Gillard said it was important for Australia to win the education race to win the economics race.
"This is important in a moral sense as we want to do the best for every kid in the country, but it was important in an economic sense too," she told reporters in Canberra on Sunday.
The program will target kindergarten to year three students and may involve breakfast clubs and after-school activities such as parents receiving a list of basic teaching tips or access to digital resources.
About 75,000 students across all grades failed to meet national minimum standards in NAPLAN tests last year.
This would more than double by 2025 without improvement, Ms Gillard said.
"Through this reading blitz, we want to make a difference," she said.
Ms Gillard said 74 per cent of children starting school were at risk of not learning to read well, but studies showed that figure could be lowered to six per cent.
Federal Schools Minister Peter Garrett said every school would need a plan to address the progress of their students.
"A focus on literacy will be a very important part of that process," he said.
Ms Gillard said improving reading levels was about giving children a better start in their education.
"The evidence shows if you come out at year three not reading well, you are very likely to come out of year nine not reading very well either," she said.
"Which means you are very likely to end up an adult who never reads well with all the consequences that has got with the jobs you can do and the jobs that are locked away from you."
The government would work with state and territory governments, and the non-government sector, to complete the national plan to improve reading levels in time for the 2014 school year.
Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said an emphasis on reading would be one way to use the increased money as proposed by the Gonski review into school funding.
"What we urgently need now is for the federal government to sit down with state and territory leaders to agree on the funding for Gonski so that the additional resources are available in schools from next year," Mr Gavrielatos said in a statement.
Ms Gillard read Emily and the Big Bad Bunyip to 10 children sitting on the floor of The Lodge on Sunday.
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