The overall purpose of the National Literacy Strategy for All is to promote and enhance lifelong and lifewide, high quality literacy practices among children, youths, adults, third country nationals and persons with learning difficulties. It strives also to improve literacy outcomes, resulting in inclusive practices, higher educational qualifications, and better job prospects.

The National Literacy Strategy for All seeks to:

- Consider literacy as an important element in the field of social inclusion. Therefore concrete measures are to be taken in order to ensure that everybody has the opportunity to obtain the skills required for them to participate fully in society.

- Promote a literate community which provides opportunities for learners to make sense of their experiences and to make connections with their histories, cultures and communities. Through increased access to books and the language arts participatory democracy is strengthened.

- Promote a policy of bilingualism and biliteracy in Maltese and English.

- Ensure that parents and the class teacher have a primary role in the literacy

 development of the child. The support services in schools should complement the vital work of the classroom teacher.

- Consolidate and integrate better existing initiatives and programmes in the field of literacy to ensure increased effectiveness and impact.

- Promote Balanced Literacy teaching and learning where the technical aspects of reading and writing are taught in the context of making meaning through text.

Balanced literacy is a curricular methodology that integrates various modalities of literacy instruction. Assessment-based planning is at the core of this model. The balanced literacy approach is characterized by explicit skill instruction and the use of authentic texts. Through various modalities, the teacher implements a well-planned comprehensive literacy programme that reflects a gradual release of control, whereby responsibility is gradually shifted from the teacher to the students.