Education Secretary Nicky Morgan pledged, alongside author David Walliams, that every junior school student in the country will be enrolled in a local library as she vowed to make English pupils “the most literate children in Europe”
The proposal comes as the use of libraries continues to decrease with the rise of tablet computers and other technology amongst youngsters.
However, the suggestion that this is to the hindrance of our children’s reading ability seems to have been proven false.
A study of around 2,000 children by Ofcom found that 40% of five- to seven-year-olds and 39% of eight- to 11-year-olds read magazines, comics or books almost every day.
The figures are backed up by the UK’s National Literacy Trusts’ Children’s and Young People’s Reading in 2014 report’, which looked at the reading habits of over 32,000 youngsters.
It found that 41.4% of those aged eight to 18 read daily outside of classroom activity, up from 29.1% in 2010 – the year Apple’s first iPad was released.
The National Literacy Trust has suggested that tablet computers are a ‘vital new weapon’ to combat poor reading, as the number used in nurseries doubles.
They suggest that parents should turn to iPads and Kindles to get boys interested in reading.
Researchers found that boys were more likely than girls to use technology for educational activities and to read for a relatively prolonged period.
The study also found that more than 90% of three-to five-year-olds now had access to e-readers in the home and the number of nurseries and childminders using the devices had almost doubled in the last 12 months from 22 to 41 per cent.
