Calls for national reading strategy as fewer Australian children read for funBy Mackenzie Mitchell

Posted Sat 5 Sep 2026 at 10:59amSat 5 Sep 2026 at 10:59amSat 5 Sep 2026 at 10:59am

In short:

A study into post-pandemic after-school activities has shown less children are reading for fun. 

Experts say it is not all bad news with a majority of Australians wanting to read more.

What’s next?

Australia Reads is calling for a national reading strategy to encourage reading more in young people and adults.

From a last-minute Where’s Wally to a classic Harry Potter, kids across Australia dressed up as their favourite literary characters to celebrate Book Week in August.

But literacy and library organisations across Australia are concerned that kids are more interested in their costumes for Book Week, than actually reading the books that inspired them.

A new declaration released to coincide with Book Week says more needs to be done to encourage reading, improve literacy, and boost library funding across Australian schools.

The Statement on School Libraries and Reading for Pleasure was produced by the Australian Library and Information Association, the Australian Coalition for School Libraries, and literacy not-for-profit Australia Reads.

The declaration calls on the federal government to make school libraries mandatory, and ensure they are properly resourced and staffed.

Australia Reads chief executive Anna Burkey said the statement was part of her organisation’s call for a national reading strategy.

“Things like Book Week happen because of volunteer organisations like the Children’s Book Council and the hearts and souls of parents, teachers and librarians making it happen,” Ms Burkey said.

“But we want more support and investment in reading as an infrastructure.

“We need a national plan.”

She said it was often children in lower economic regions that did not have sufficient access to books.

“It becomes a postcode lottery,” she said.

“I was at a private school yesterday and it had five librarians but you go five miles down the road and there’s a school that has no library or librarians.“

What the stats say

A 2025 study from the University of South Australia found that children and teenagers were reading less than in previous years, if at all.

The study into post-pandemic after-school activities found that fewer young people were reading for pleasure.

In 2019, 10.8 per cent of children never read for fun; in 2022, the figure had climbed to 52.5 per cent.

By comparison, daily social media use had increased from 26 per cent in 2019 to 85.4 per cent in 2022.

The study’s results are reflected in the nation’s NAPLAN results from recent years.

During 2023, NAPLAN reading results showed that 74.5 per cent of year 5 students were reading at a strong or exceeding level, compared to 2026 where that figure has decreased to 71 per cent.

Ms Burkey said the drop in reading was not just in children, but adults too, with 30 per cent of all Australians not picking up a book in the last year.

“We have more choices than ever before for entertainment,” she said.

Ms Burkey said there were plenty of positives as well.

“Even if a third of people in Australia is not reading, that still means the vast majority are,” she said.

“The other good news story is that half of Australians want to read more often.“

How to get kids reading

Literary consultant and Bendigo-based author Sarah Mayor Cox said literacy skills often fell off the list for struggling families, which is why programs such as the late Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library were so important.

“A child can have their own mini library by the time they age out of the program,” Ms Mayor Cox said of the Imagination Library.

“It gives them such a head start before they start school or kindergarten.”

According to the Grattan Institute, one in three children can not read proficiently at their grade level.

Ms Mayor Cox said prioritising the joy of reading over the technical skills was foundational for getting children to read for fun, and eventually their literacy skills would improve.

“There is this obsession with technical reading, such as phonics,” she said.

“People should prioritise the joy of reading over competency.“

Ms Burkey agreed, saying the relationship between literacy skills and reading for leisure was critical and the benefits were “life-changing”.

She said often people could feel overwhelmed with the choices of books, and it could be an obstacle for those wanting to read more.

But she said the best way to encourage kids to read more was to support their choices.

“Supporting them to test and trial, finding out what they like is really important [as is] validating what they choose,” Ms Burkey said.

“It doesn’t really matter what they choose.

“If they are excited by that, amazing, lean in.”