There’s a quiet crisis growing in Australian schools and it’s something worth reading about.
Recent data has revealed a concerning drop in literacy levels amongst Aussie students. In fact, as reported by ABC, some year 9 students are writing at a year 4 level. That’s not a typo, though I wish it was. Students are five years behind where they should be. Teachers across the country are seeing the effects in their classrooms every day, as students struggle to comprehend texts, express ideas clearly, or engage with written material on a deeper level.
So, what’s going on? And, perhaps more importantly, what can we do about it?
One key piece of the puzzle is reading for pleasure. And no, I’m not talking about prescribed novels or comprehension exercises. I’m talking about the kind of reading where kids are genuinely hooked. Reading that feels like a choice, not a chore.
When I was in grade 3, my teacher was a master of storytelling. We would start every single morning sat in front of her while she would recount a funny story from her childhood. She’d then open the floor to us and we would subconsciously adopt her mannerisms and delivery style to share our own stories with the class. During our reading sessions, she would tell us about the book she was reading at the time, and in her natural, charismatic way, she made us feel invested in her book journey and motivated by the concept of reading and recounting what we read. She used connection as a way to pique our interest, and it worked. To be fair, this was also the time when epic texts like Harry Potter were taking the world by storm, and my classmates and their parents were lining up at Borders Books to buy their copy of Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince… What a time to be alive.
I remember my friends and I becoming really competitive about who could read better. Not because we wanted to be better than one another, but because we simply couldn’t wait to be the first to read a book that our friends hadn’t read yet and be able to share the stories with each other. I couldn’t tell you how proud I was when I was in grade 4 and I told my friends that I managed to read the first four books in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events in less than two weeks. Boy, did that story-time gather a crowd!
My year level was one of the first to transition to the digital-learning world as we know it today. Of course, like other years before me, we all went home and watched TV after school. If we were lucky, many of us had the new Nintendo DS consoles, or Tamagotchis or PlayStations. We certainly weren’t a digitally exempt generation. By the time we were in grade 6, our classrooms were fitted with interactive whiteboards that needed to be recalibrated all the time because they just wouldn’t work. Slowly, things like our maths homework moved to online platforms like Mathletics, and reading time was no longer allocated in the classroom. It was to be done at home.
As I got older, the final instalment in the Harry Potter series was released. Then, Twilight rocked our early high school lives. The Hunger Games gripped us from years 9-10, and after that, popular reading took a turn. Book-based films were being released quicker than you could finish reading a series, and new release games became the thing that people were lining up for. There simply wasn’t enough time to read, especially if the books weren’t on your reading list. Then, the books we studied weren’t exactly for everyone. When our year 10 cohort was separated into three reading level groups to study Romeo and Juliet, and a total of 15/100 students were in the Capulet (high comprehension) group, that was pretty concerning. What was even more concerning than that was that amongst that group of 15 students, there were only three boys. By this stage, we were the first year level in our school and in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne to be given MacBooks, and by year 11, these were replaced by iPads and we no longer had hard-copy text books.
The latest NAPLAN results paint a sobering picture. While the new proficiency benchmarks introduced in 2023 provide a more nuanced view of achievement, they also revealed that a significant number of students were falling behind, particularly in writing. In NSW alone, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that a quarter of year 9 students did not meet the national benchmark for writing.
According to Professor Pasi Sahlberg, a Finnish education expert based in Australia, the decline may be linked to students spending less time reading and more time on devices. In an interview with The Conversation, he said “when children spend hours on screens but not reading long-form text, their attention spans, vocabulary, and comprehension suffer.”
Reading for pleasure, which I’d like to define as voluntary, self-selected reading, is one of the strongest predictors of future academic success. It has been linked to:
- Improved vocabulary and grammar
- Greater empathy and emotional intelligence
- Higher overall literacy scores
- A lifelong habit of learning
In fact, a 2018 OECD study found that students who read for enjoyment are more likely to perform well in school regardless of their socio-economic background.
When students don’t develop this habit, the consequences follow them for the rest of their adult lives. Poor literacy skills limit future job prospects, contribute to disengagement, and even impact mental health.
I recently attended a Country Education Partnership event in Melbourne, and started speaking to the principal of a regional Victorian school who I work with every year to produce his school’s student diaries. He began to tell me a story about one of his year 10 boys who he has been working with every lunchtime to finish a book. Essentially, this student wants to be a tradie when he finishes school, but doesn’t have the literacy skills needed to apply for the TAFE course, let alone participate in one. This principal then decided to take this student to the library and help him pick out a novel. The student was not interested whatsoever but complied. Then, every lunch time, this student would sit with the principal and read a chapter of the book. After two lunchtimes, the student actually became really invested in the story. By the fourth lunchtime, he asked the principal if he could take the book home to read. He finished reading the book in a week. The principal told me that there’s a real lack of quality stories for high school students, particularly for boys. As an avid reader myself, who read a lot of texts aimed at all genders in high school, looking at the options available now, I have to agree.
When you walk into your local Big W, Kmart, or Target, what do you find? In place of books like The Lord of the Rings or Percy Jackson and the Olympians, you find the BookTok viral romances that have little to no substance. There’s not much that would get the attention of a teenager. Even young adults who do read voluntarily are limited in their choices unless they go to a book store that charges double in comparison to our department stores. It is a very different experience than what I grew up with, which was global hype for a new book and entire chapter book series being on most students’ Christmas wish lists. As teacher-librarian Megan Daley notes in her book Raising Readers , “Children won’t find books they love unless they’re exposed to a wide range.”
On top of the lack of exciting choice, many Australian students, especially those in upper primary and lower secondary years report that they find reading ‘boring’ or ‘hard’. It isn’t surprising. If a student is already behind in reading, struggling through a novel can feel more like punishment than pleasure.
Add in time pressures, digital distractions, and limited access to engaging reading materials at home, and it is easy to see why the habit of reading can be so easily forgotten.
If you’ve made it this far into this article, you’re probably feeling like it’s all a bit helpless. Well, do I have some good news for you! Educators can make a difference, even in a packed curriculum and in a tech-saturated world. Here are a few strategies that just may work… hopefully…
- Model a reading culture
When teachers talk about what they’re reading, just like my grade 3 teacher did, and read alongside students, it normalises the habit. Dedicate time each week to reading for enjoyment as a class, even if it’s just for 10-15 minutes. Secondary teachers, why not pass this article onto your homeroom or English teachers and suggest that they give this a go.
- Make choice a priority
Offer a range of texts, including things like graphic novels, magazines, or even short stories. Let students choose what they read and remove the pressure of assessment. One year 7 teacher in Regional Victoria shared that ‘As soon as I let go of book reports and let them blog or talk about books casually, reading levels started to shift.”
- Use the school library as a literacy hub
Many school libraries are underused or underfunded, but they can be a powerful literacy booster. Work with your librarian to highlight new or exciting titles, run reading challenges, or curate genre displays. If your school doesn’t have a library, consider partnering with your local council or even free, digital libraries. My personal favourites are BorrowBox and Libby.
- Highlight relatable stories
Students are more likely to engage with stories that reflect their lives and interests. Showcase diverse authors and characters, and include books that deal with real life issues like family, identity, and belonging. This can also help students with reading and enjoying the prescribed texts for English/Literature classes.
- Encourage families to join in
Where possible, include tips in newsletters or other parent communications about the importance of reading at home. For younger students, including a home reading journal like ReadingTrek is a convenient and interactive way to get kids excited about reading at home. Even 10 minutes a night can have a significant impact over time. Fun fact? I used to read too much and my dad used to think it was a bad thing until my year 11 Lit teacher confirmed that it was in fact a great way for me to spend my time.
The gap between year 9 students and year 4 writing levels isn’t just a statistic. It’s a call to action, and while the problem is complex and requires patience and years of work to reverse, one thing is clear: Fostering a love of reading early and often is essential and perhaps the best way to nip this issue in the bud. As author and literacy advocate Jackie French puts it, “If we want kids to read, we need to treat books like chocolate cake – something to be devoured and delighted in, not dissected and graded.”
References:
- Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2023 NAPLAN Results
- OECD (2018). PISA 2018 Results
- Daley, M. (2019). Raising Readers
- ABC News, “New teaching resources aim to reverse Australian students’ poor writing results”, June 2025
- The Conversation, “Too many school students are falling behind: how do we help those most at risk??”, August 2023