On one side sit the hard numbers. National assessments have shown too many children falling behind in basic literacy, prompting new plans and renewed government focus on reading.
More recent data offers some hope. Structured literacy programmes, particularly in early phonics and decoding, are lifting results. The trend is encouraging, but the gap remains wide.
On the other side, our reading habits.
Libraries, once the backbone of community reading, are working hard to draw people back. Some report gradual declines in traditional borrowing even as they expand e-book collections, host events, and scrap overdue fees. The removal of fines has boosted access and foot traffic, but has not always restored borrowing to past levels.
Devices lead the competition for attention.
Less time spent reading books often means more time scrolling on phones. Quick bursts of “reading” can be helpful, even entertaining, but they rarely build the deep comprehension or quiet pleasure that keep people reading for life.
So, what do we lose?
First, depth. A book gives ideas room to breathe. It lets readers sit with characters, arguments or history until meaning settles.
Second, patience. Real reading builds stamina – not only for length but for complexity. It teaches the ability to hold competing ideas in mind and tolerate uncertainty. A diet of rapid digital content can erode that mental endurance.
Third, the habits that sustain democracy. Literacy shapes civic health. Media scrutiny, public debate, voting decisions and community action depend on people who can absorb detail, weigh evidence and remember past lessons.
There is also a quieter, more personal cost.
Phones now glow steadily in homes where newspapers and novels once rested. Children notice.
As private scrolling replaces reading, something more complex to measure begins to fade: traditions, memory, and the collective experience of being inside the same story.
Some parts of the system are responding. Schools are expanding structured literacy initiatives with early signs of success. Libraries and councils continue to build inclusive spaces, including fine-free policies, mobile services, graphic novels, multilingual books and vibrant children’s areas.
But policy alone cannot restore a reading culture.
The most potent influence remains simple choice. When reading becomes something we do only when required, attention thins and the stories that once bound us together begin to fade.
Adults who read for pleasure show children what matters without preaching: a bedtime story, 20 quiet minutes on the deck with a book, a regular library visit.
Let’s not accept being a country of skim-readers and scrollers, but a country of engaged, thoughtful readers.
This summer, start the old-fashioned way: find a book, find some shade, and turn the page.