Should we despair Pt 2: Low reading rates, low literacy rates?

Ask Alice is an online column written by our former Secretary, Dr Alice Boer-Endacott, who has published several young adult fantasy novels and a non-fiction mini, under ‘A B Endacott’.

Ask Alice is designed to unpack all aspects of the Australian young adult literary scene, so if you’ve got a question, go ahead and Ask Alice!

Last month, I identified what I lovingly term as the three horsemen of the literary apocalypse:

• A seeming diversity backslide diversity within major publishing houses
• The increased efforts to censor books which don’t adhere to a deeply repressive and regressive worldview
• A decline in literacy skills among young people, as well as a decline in recreational reading

In the June column, I tackled diversity within the publishing industry.

This month, the bee in my bonnet since I saw the headlines reporting in the tones of imminent societal upheaval that “Australians, especially men, are reading less than ever before,” has buzzed with the incessant demand that I weigh in with my two cents on the issue. However, in my book, rates of reading in the population, and literacy outcomes in schools are things which should always be discussed in tandem, so that’s what we’re going to do today, ask ourselves:

Should we despair about the low reading rates and low literacy rates? 

Let’s unpack the article about Australian reading rates in a bit more detail. One of the things it presents to highlight the article’s inciting point, that younger generations read at a far lower rate than older ones, and men read less than women, is the below table:

Source: The ABC

You know what happens when you get older, though? You have more time to spend on leisure activities such as reading. As a woman in my 30s, trying (and, let’s face it, failing) to balance my work, my family, my friends, my leisure activities, and my restoration and wellbeing, I have to work aggressively to ensure I have time to read beyond the 20 or 30 minutes before bed, when I’m often so tired that I can’t concentrate properly. And I love to read. My job is loving books.

The other thing that strikes me about that table, though, is in contrast to the what the article’s title implies, not all men are equal. There is indeed a reading difference between genders which is significant within Gen X. However, that gap is much smaller in other generations, especially Gen Z, even if the generation does read the least, overall. So when looking at the question of whether we should despair about this, I’m not actually sold. Should we keep a cautious eye on this? Sure, but despair? No.

With that being said, it’s important to acknowledge the importance of reading for everybody (especially in an environment when we know reading builds empathy, and we know we are in the midst of a ‘male loneliness epidemic’ and the connection and empathy reading brings is a balm to that). But let’s take a step back. Because reading as something that people can do, and something they want to do is often informed by childhood experience. I don’t think this conversation can be had without also discussing the literacy skills of Australian students. Let’s do that now.

If you work in education, you will likely at some point hear the lament that current students are not as engaged, capable, focused, or knowledgeable as previous cohorts. I’ve been working in and around education since I was 19. If this perspective is consistently true, then students coming through the Australian education system should all be illiterate and innumerate by now. That’s not the case.

“But Alice,” you might be saying, “what about those articles decrying that “One in three children are not proficient in numeracy or literacy,” “a third of year 9 students writing at a primary-school level,” or the one which came through as I was writing this column with the byline: “Australian analysts sound the alarm over latest concerning NAPLAN results.”

These articles make me really crotchety.

At face value, it’s not great. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll see the comment in an article from The Guardian noting the overall results are ‘stable’ in comparison to previous years.

Moreover, when this comes to how Australian students are performing in comparison to other countries, the previous Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, conducted three years ago, reveals Australia’s 2023 results in reading have held steady since 2018 (Australia’s worst-ever performance, although it still consistently scores above the OECD average in literacy), following a steady decline since the PISA test began in 2000. This ranked Australian 15-year-olds at rank ninth in the world for reading. Is this the stuff of despair? Not really.

Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t love any kind of decline like this, regardless of how well we may still be positioned globally. However, again, this tone of crisis means these articles are really great clickbait, but don’t really ground a sensible discussion.

In fairness, all these articles which dissect the literary results of Australian students do get to the problem (although it’s ultimately buried so far down that it’s not the key takeaway for most readers): wealth makes a huge difference. Students from wealthier families (and areas) – we don’t need to worry about them. This article surmises: “students at government schools in Australia scored more than 40 points lower than independent schools in mathematics, reading and science, equivalent to around a two-year education gap.”

I am irritated by the way these results are reported. The headlines and focus should emphasise the need for greater funding and support to schools in lower socio-economic parts of Australia (which encompasses Indigenous and rural communities), rather than the blanket statement of ‘1 in 3,’ implying that in every single school across Australia, a third of students are virtually illiterate.

Moreover, another thing that bugs me about these articles is that they don’t meaningfully discuss why we are seeing these results. Perhaps the abandonment of phonics, which wealthier families and schools may have the resources to compensate for, is a contributing factor. Perhaps it’s the fact that we know families with a higher wealth often (but not always) have a culture which places higher value on reading and education, and ensure space is made for children to study and read. Perhaps it’s simply the greater financial resources available to independent schools. Perhaps it’s all three.

In fairness to the NAPLAN reporting frenzy, there does also seem to be a consistent gap in literacy performance between genders, regardless of background. However, again, there is little dissection of the why. I humbly bring us back to questions about who’s reading what and why – or why not.

We know students who read for leisure consistently perform better in literacy and writing. However, there is less research into whether strong performance in literacy and writing informs reading practice. Probably, it’s a positive feedback cycle. Interestingly, the 2024 What Kids Are Reading Report found, “Australian students read an average of 17.6 books per student, a noticeable jump from 13.2 books in 2023,” with 72% of students of children aged 5-14 reading regularly for pleasure, as noted in a 2023 Australian Bureau of Statistics survey. Hardly a signal for deep despair.

However, we know there are certain swathes of children who don’t read very much at all, and we know that reading rates drop off as children morph into teenagers (and beyond). As my faves at the Deakin Teen Reading Project determined, about a third of teenagers (ages 11-18) don’t read at all (interesting that it’s a third of students who don’t meet literacy benchmarks…).  But while we know that social media, video games, study, tv or movies compete with the leisure time of teenagers, there is scope for far greater discussion about why people more broadly may not be reading, and what we can do about it.

A lot of the time, there seems to be a perception of disinterest, or of other, shinier things (like TikTok). While that’s true for some people, it’s not really the case.

Returning to the first article mentioned in this column, Australians, especially men, are reading less than ever before, the president of Australia Reads, Anna Burkey, does venture into answering why men, and boys, may read less, suggesting “part of the problem was boys and men did not see themselves reflected in the reading world.”

Many years ago, I was in a meeting for a literary advocacy project, and we noted there were no men in the room. One person replied, “yeah, do we really care about including men?” I voiced discomfort with this stance. Excluding men from that kind of conversation in turn meant we probably were overlooking texts aimed at a male readership (of any age), as well as losing a perspective on what an entire demographic of readers feels, sees, or needs.

This is arguably one part of the problem: needing to find ways to engage certain readers who have been left out of the reading culture. However, there are other reasons which mean people who want to read more struggle to find a way to do this.

As this article points out: “thousands of Australians … are trying to get back into reading as a leisure activity. But we have blocks. We are distracted. We are not in the mood. Reading feels harder than scrolling or watching. We feel as though we don’t have time, or can’t find the right book.” In an environment where we might read a lot, of when we might simply be tired from living our lives, the prospect of sustained focus on a book, which requires a lot more investment than, say, TV, might simply be too much.

This is supported by the findings in the report for ‘Understanding Australian Readers,’ a collaborative project between Australia Reads and Monash University, published in February 2025. Out of 1622 respondents, only 10% were totally uninterested. That’s a pretty good number and, interestingly, correlates with NAPLAN literacy results which suggest, “in reading, on average 9.3 per cent of students were at the [very dire] ‘needs additional support’ level.”

So while only 10% of Australians don’t want to read at all, there are many who do want to, but struggle with how to approach it. The Understanding Australian Readers report noted 14.8% of respondents were ambivalent about reading because of “Barriers [which included] Indifference to reading, uncertainty about their capability and interest.”

Some of those barriers can include competing leisure priorities, but also the fact that many jobs require a huge amount of reading (emails, reports, slack messages, teams messages, text messages, whatsapp messages…). When considering these two in concert, it’s understandable that someone might want to engage in a leisure activity that doesn’t require a reading skillset.

In sum, this means there are a lot of really valid justifications to not picking up a book. But if we’re bringing it back to those formative years in which a relationship to reading is cultivated (or withers), rather than throw up our hands in despair, there are things we can do for to encourage readers of all genders and all ages.

Page 8-10 of the ‘Understanding Australian Readers’ report provide some really fantastic recommendations to consider how we can cultivate a culture; I recommend you look at them. Some points include making books more visible in everyday life to make them a ‘front of mind’ activity, and promoting the range of formats by which people can consume books.

The importance of the visibility of books and reading is supported by findings which reveal that countries where public transport is more frequently used (eg the UK, France, Germany, Spain) tend to have higher reading rates. The explanation for this is that commuting on a train lends itself quite well to reading a book. However, these countries often also have bookshops in train stations, which encourages a culture of reading while commuting.

There are definitely things we can do in our schools and in broader society to safeguard reading, and the literacy it brings. But rather than despairing at the news headlines which proclaim a third of Australians are virtually illiterate, and Australians are shunning books, I like to get crotchety. Partly, because being crotchety is my natural space, but partly because when I’m crotchety, I start to look for things I can do in the face of something that can be better.

So no, I’m not despairing. Because things could be a lot worse. But where there’s space for improvement, there are things we can do.