The Norwegian paper giant will give the scheme which aims to encourage school children to read newspapers in classrooms around the world 400,000 per year from 2008-2013.

Under the scheme, run by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), teachers are trained to use newspapers as teaching aids, while children are encouraged to study newspapers and produce titles of their own.

Norske Skog chief executive Jan Oksum said the project responded to the "challenge of technology, the promotion of reading skills among young people, and explaining the complexity of modern society".

WAN director of development and education Aralynn McMane said that research had proved the importance of reading at a young age.

"If a person is not a newspaper reader by the age of 13, they are probably never going to be a newspaper reader," she said.

Newspapers in education
- Scheme launched by The New York Times in 1930s

- Projects in countries including Indonesia, Kyrgystan, Colombia, Morocco and Ghana

- More than 220m news-papers distributed to classrooms every year

- Accounts for 2.4% of all US newspaper circulation