Reading: Making Reading a Gift to the Young

Make reading a gift to the young

https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/st-editorial/make-reading-a-gift-to-the-young

2023-05-30

It is heartening that Primary 4 pupils in Singapore have emerged as the top readers in the world in an international test. The recently released results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls) show that pupils here are stronger in both foundational and higher-order reading skills compared with their international peers. The Ministry of Education (MOE) notes that Primary 4 marks an important point of transition in children’s development as readers, “when they would have learnt how to read, and are starting to read to learn”.

Held every five years, Pirls evaluates fourth-grade pupils’ reading and comprehension skills, such as interpreting and drawing connections between texts. Commendably, more than a third – 35 per cent – of Singapore pupils achieved the highest “advanced” level in the study, which refers to high competency in reading difficult texts and showing higher-order thinking skills. The international median was 7 per cent. These results help to corroborate the value of a Singapore school education, which is proved by students’ high scores in international tests such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) that measures the competencies of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science.

An important qualification, however, is that, while Singapore students have emerged as the top winners in the Pirls test because of their proficiency and confidence in reading, fewer of them have reported that they actually enjoy reading. The proportion of students who say that they enjoy reading a lot has fallen to 51 per cent, the lowest in a decade. The decline in reading enjoyment is an international phenomenon that is driven partly by the rapid proliferation of social media. This trend needs to be resisted. Already, MOE collaborates with the National Library Board (NLB) so that suggested good reads curated by its librarians are shared with schools. Also, schools collaborate with the NLB to promote the love for reading and cultivate good reading habits among younger pupils through a nationwide reading programme where volunteers read to children aged four to eight from less privileged families.

These are worthwhile initiatives, but it is parents who must take the primary responsibility for inculcating a love of reading in their children. Reading helps to improve a child’s memory, increases her or his vocabulary, sensitises children to different points of view, and hence encourages students to empathise with those who are different from them in age, gender, family wealth, academic achievement and nationality. From reading books written long ago to reading newspapers produced today, the written word possesses an educative agency that cannot be usurped by the abbreviated realities of social media, particularly in the hurried and ungrammatical form that they usually take. Reading is a worthwhile legacy for parents to leave to their children.