The National Year of Reading should be extended to a National Decade of Reading, an education committee inquiry into reading for pleasure has concluded.

The government should also commit to a National Reading Guarantee that would ensure all children have regular opportunities to enjoy reading, the committee argues.

The Reading for Pleasure inquiry was launched last November in response to a sharp decline in the number of children reading for pleasure.

National Literary Trust CEO Jonathan Douglas told the committee that this year’s National Year of Reading should be “turned into a decade of reading to sustain the foundations that are being laid”, according to the inquiry report, published Friday.

Extending the initiative would mean reading for pleasure “remains a long-term priority”, and could be used “as an opportunity to effect much more far-reaching change to embed reading for pleasure into all areas of education”, says the report.

Meanwhile, a National Reading Guarantee would ensure that all children, “regardless of background”, have frequent opportunities to “enjoy books, stories and shared reading experiences from birth to 18 as part of everyday life”, it adds.

Though the report suggests that the Guarantee should adopt a “broad” definition of reading, it says children should be encouraged to engage with “traditional” books, “recognising the particular benefits that traditional books bring”. Jo Taylor, an associate professor of language and cognition at UCL, told the inquiry that “the complexity of the language in a graphic novel will not be the same as the complexity of a language in a traditional novel”, for instance.

The cross-party committee, chaired by Labour MP Helen Hayes, says that the Department for Education (DfE) should extend its pledge to deliver a library in every primary school to secondary schools. It also says the government should restore public library funding lost since 2010, and supports calls to automatically issue library cards at birth.

The rise of screen use is a “major factor” reducing the time children spend reading for pleasure, according to the report. Author, illustrator and teacher Onyinye Iwu told the inquiry that when she asked students why they don’t read, “a lot of them were like: ‘Miss, but we have TikTok. What is the point?’ That is it. You have TikTok, you have Netflix, you have the film coming out; why would you read the book?”

However, “England is lagging so far behind the international average that we cannot place the blame solely on screens”, states the report. The cost of living, modern work patterns, lack of library access and “competing curriculum demands” are also significant factors.

Douglas told the inquiry that boys specifically may struggle to read because “from birth girls are more likely to be bought books as presents and to be taken to the library, so the gendering of reading as an activity happens almost unconsciously at quite an early stage”. Fewer male teachers and a lack of male role models who read may also contribute to boys reading less.

According to the report, there is “little evidence” that the National Year of Reading has “impacted the core work” of the DfE regarding schools and early years. It adds that children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), especially those with dyslexia, are a “key priority group” missing from the year-long initiative.

It suggests that early years reading should be “focused on building enjoyment and engagement over school readiness and the teaching of phonics”.

Last year’s curriculum review was a “missed opportunity” to create more space for children to develop a genuine enjoyment of reading, the report argues, adding that the GCSE English Literature curriculum should be diversified: “It is unacceptable that, in 2023, only 1.5% of students had studied a text by a writer of colour at GCSE, and we do not understand why the Curriculum and Assessment Review failed to address this crucial issue”.

The inquiry concluded that the fall in reading for pleasure is “not inevitable”, and is the consequence of “policy choices, fragmented systems and unequal access”.

Isobel Hunter, chief executive at Libraries Connected, said that the committee has issued a “clear call to action”, adding: “We urge the incoming Burnham government to make reading for pleasure part of its wider mission to spread opportunity and improve life chances”.