Jay Basra, Mid Ulster UUP spokesperson, highlights the current state of literacy in Northern Ireland and the implications that lockdowns and isolation have had on young people's formative years in the education system.

Every child deserves to be read to and eventually encouraged to read independently. According to the National Literacy Trust, only 1 in 3 children and young people said they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2024. This is a concerning revelation: what has happened to our young people's love for reading and education? Only 1 in 5 young people read daily in their free time; without exposure to new vocabularies or writing styles, how will they grow and learn to articulate themselves?

With the outworkings of social isolation and being confined to your home for months on end during lockdowns, there is no doubt this has affected many children and young adults in the education system, especially in the formative years. Years in which we, as educators, policymakers, parents, and literacy advocates, should promote good literacy by giving them books that interest and motivate them; nothing is more draining than reading a book you don’t understand or care about. Let me emphasise that we owe a great deal of thanks to those who help educate and grow our youth.

What truly illustrated to me the importance of reading to children was when, in the run-up to World Book Day, I was graciously invited to read to some of the children in the Cookstown campus of Sperrinview Special School. It truly opened my eyes to the hard work put into helping our children grow into young adults, especially from the staff and administration in Sperrinview.

There is only so much our education system can do now. Undoubtedly, those statistics are due to a lack of support when reading. Therefore, I echo the call by the National Literacy Trust to establish a collaborative reading task force and action plan with partners from multiple sectors to tackle declining reading enjoyment.