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Schools having libraries should be a legal requirement, MPs tell the government in a parliamentary report on reading.

The Commons Education Select Committee has called on the government to extend its pledge to fund a library in every primary school to include every secondary school, too.

The MPs warn that the government’s current focus is “overwhelmingly on reading proficiency over pleasure”, and that GCSE English literature is “turning children off reading”.

The government committed to a last year.

The committee’s report, Reading for Pleasure, concludes its inquiry into children’s reading, which was launched in response to concerns over a decline in reading enjoyment.

Calls to make school libraries a requirement

The committee says in its report that it is particularly concerned about the low rates of reading among boys and teenagers, and the challenges facing children raised in low-income families and children with reading difficulties such as dyslexia.

It recommends that the government extend its pledge to fund a library in every primary school to include every secondary school, and also place school libraries on a statutory footing.

The report adds: “It is striking that libraries are statutory requirements in prisons, but not schools.”

Last month, a schools minister told MPs that it is for headteachers to decide how best to create a culture of reading, when asked whether the Department for Education would make school libraries a legal requirement.

The report also suggests a school library development fund be created so that schools can refresh their shelves and train staff. It recommends that schools should also be expected to provide dedicated library lessons in the school timetable.

Criticism of current reading policies

The committee criticised the government’s current policies on reading.

The report says: “The department’s focus is overwhelmingly on reading proficiency over pleasure, with an overloaded curriculum and heavy focus on assessment crowding out opportunities to show children the joy of reading.”

It also calls the curriculum and assessment review, published in November 2025, a “missed opportunity” to create more space for pupils to develop a true enjoyment of reading.

The government should also revise GCSE English literature to make a love of books a core objective of the qualification and to improve the diversity of texts, the report says.

It warns that the current offer is “turning children off reading - the opposite of what a literature
qualification should be aiming to achieve”.

Breakfast clubs ‘should offer reading activities’

As part of a “national reading guarantee”, the committee recommends that ministers update the early years foundation stage profile and Ofsted inspection framework to emphasise that reading should be focused on enjoyment.

Breakfast clubs should also offer books and reading activities, the report suggests.

As part of the guarantee, it says the DfE should extend the National Year of Reading being held this year into a National Decade of Reading to ensure that reading for pleasure remains a long-term priority.

Committee chair Helen Hayes MP said: “Imagine a miracle medicine that not only improves educational outcomes for children, whatever disadvantage they carry with them, but also expands their worldview, develops their bonds of empathy with others and helps them to understand their own place in the world.

“That’s what reading for pleasure offers a child. We should be extremely concerned that so few children currently say they enjoy reading or regularly pick up a book. This matters for everyone in society.”

She also warned that children from disadvantaged backgrounds or those with additional needs are less likely to develop a love of reading.

“Access to literature should never be a luxury available only to the most prosperous families. We need to start taking action as early in a child’s life as possible, before disadvantage is baked in,” Ms Hayes added.

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