Call for audiobooks to be added to new schools curriculum

The government has been urged to include audiobooks in the new schools curriculum in England after research showed fewer children are reading books for pleasure and more are listening to them instead.

- Sally Weale

A poll by the National Literacy Trust (NLT) found that children's enjoyment of listening to audio and podcasts has risen in the past year, overtaking their enjoyment of reading for the first time since the charity began asking about audio in 2020.

More than two in five (42.3%) of the 37,000 children and young people in the UK aged eight to 18 who took part in the poll said they enjoyed listening to audio in their free time in 2024, up from 39.4% in 2023.

As audio increases in popularity, reading for pleasure has fallen to "crisis" levels, according to the NLT, with just over a third of children (34.6%) saying they enjoy reading in their free time. Boys are particularly disenchanted with books, resulting in a 28.2% versus 40.5% gender gap.

With audio, however, more boys than girls say they enjoy listening - 43.4% versus 40.4% - and the NLT says it hopes audiobooks and podcasts could offer a gateway to reading for pleasure for both boys and girls.