ANALYSIS

I HAVE been delighted by the widespread support for my Lifechanging Libraries campaign and open letter to the Prime Minister.

This was backed by many literacy and reading organisations, such as BookTrust and the National Literacy Trust, and all former Laureates.

There has been so much enthusiasm for our call to place primary school libraries at the heart of our long-term response to the pandemic, with a ring-fenced, yearly investment of £100million.

But I’ve also been struck by how many people are surprised that we even need to ask. What’s clear from this reaction is that people assume that all primary schools have well-stocked libraries. However this is not the case.

I have spent 20 years touring schools and have seen the astonishing inequality in library provision. Heartbreakingly, schools with a greater percentage of

children on free school meals have fewer libraries and fewer books.

So, the children that need books most are the very children who are least likely to have them.

This cannot be fair. Decades of research show that reading has a life-changing impact on a child’s life prospects, their mental health, wellbeing, selfesteem, educational achievement and so much more. It opens up a world of possibilities and develops aspiration, while driving social mobility and mitigating the effect of social inequality.

But how can a child become a

reader for pleasure if their parents or carers cannot afford books, and their primary school has no library?

Through our six pilot schools, the Life-changing Libraries project will spotlight the four pillars of a successful “gold standard” school library – space, book provision, expertise and whole-school and parent involvement.

The Prime Minister has made helping children who have been disproportionately affected during the pandemic a priority. So I urge the Government to take this step to invest in school libraries and in our children’s and our country’s future.