The survey by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that children are now less likely to enjoy going to the library and more likely to prefer watching television to reading than they were in 1998.
The NFER was prompted to re-run its reading survey questionnaire in the wake of findings from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study of 35 countries in April confirming that pupils in England read well but derived less enjoyment from it.
The NFER questionnaire was completed by Year 4 and Year 6 children, aged between eight and 11, at 74 schools, including 28 schools where pupils had also completed questionnaires in the summer of 1998, a term before the literacy hour was introduced. The survey showed the proportion of children who did not think reading was difficult rose by around 10 per cent, from 56 to 65 per cent for nine-year-olds and 62 to 73 per cent for 11-year-olds over the five years.
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