The UK was
ranked 47th out of 65 nations in a table based on the number of teenagers who
pick up a book, newspaper or magazine on a daily basis.
In all, around four-in-10 teenagers in the UK fail to read
for enjoyment outside school.
Across the developed world, boys are
significantly less likely to read daily than girls.
This is significant because better readers not only perform well in school, they grow up to become adults who use their reading skills to make sense of the world around them and continue learning throughout their lives.
These disclosures are revealed in a recent research report by
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This study pulls together data from the OECD’s Programme
for International Student Assessment (PISA) – a series of tests taken by
students across the world in 2009. It ranked 65 nations by the proportion of
pupils who reported reading for pleasure.
PISA finds that a crucial difference between students who perform
well in the PISA reading assessment and those who perform poorly lies in
whether they read daily for enjoyment, rather than in how much time they spend
reading.
Significantly, on average, students who read daily for enjoyment score the equivalent of one and a half years of schooling better than those who do not.