Fewer children than ever are reading for pleasure. Whatever the reasons behind this - Covid, social media, lack of access to books - this is a major problem.
Reading for pleasure is more closely correlated with academic success than any other factor that we are aware of - including socio-economic class.
The graph above, drawn from PISA Study figures, shows this relationship clearly. The mean combined reading literacy score across the entire population of the study is 500. Children with low reading engagement all have average scores below the mean, regardless of their socio-economic background. However, children with high reading engagement have scores at least 40 points more than the mean. What is most significant is the impact that reading has on children from a low socio-economic background: note how steeply their curve rises as reading engagement increases.
Yet for all our progress in education this century, reading for pleasure is dropping off a cliff. In the last four years alone, the percentage of children reading for pleasure has fallen from 56% to 43% in the UK. Only 28% of children read daily.
This is a well-recognised problem, and we believe that Pageticker can be a cornerstone of the solution. Promoting a healthy relationship between parents, teachers, children and the books they read, Pageticker is an app that parents can use to quickly and easily share reading progress with teachers, find strategies to support their child and get healthy reading recommendations.
If you are a teacher, stay tuned to our journey as we progress towards launch at the end of 2024.
Sign up here.
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