Singaporean Najwa Alhabshi remembers spending her teenage years poring over literary classics such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and George Orwell’s 1984. But as work commitments grew, finding time to read became harder, and her smartphone took over.
“Life got in the way – it was work, a lack of time, and eventually, the phone screen,” the 35-year-old tutor said.
Across Southeast Asia, governments are stepping in to get people reading again. Concerns are growing over falling literacy rates, shortened attention spans and declining critical-thinking capabilities.
Indonesia launched a countrywide plan to distribute more than 5.5 million books to primary and secondary schools. Neighbouring Malaysia is handing out 100 ringgit (HK$192) vouchers to more than 2.2 million students to spend on its national digital book marketplace.
Last month, Singapore launched an initiative that pays citizens to read. Under the scheme, users earn 20 virtual coins for every reading session lasting at least 15 minutes. Recording one session a day for 50 days accumulates 1,000 coins, which can be exchanged for 1 Singapore dollar (HK$6.12).
A global study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development found that students are now reading at a level previously expected of those a year younger. The study also found a decline in skills such as evaluating information, making connections across multiple sources and critical thinking.
Overreliance on artificial intelligence (AI) threatened the development of reading skills, said Portia Padilla, a professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman.
“If you do not think while reading, you are not truly reading,” Padilla said, adding that readers should use AI to challenge their assumptions rather than form judgments.
While government intervention and incentives can nudge people to pick up a book, experts say they do little to build intrinsic motivation and cultivate lifelong habits.
Reading should be viewed as a commitment rather than a short-term campaign, she added, urging support across the whole ecosystem, including public policy, language development programmes and supportive environments at home and in the community.
Providing dedicated spaces for reading – such as quiet public zones or after-hours book clubs – could offer another way to build momentum, said Loh Chin Ee from the National Institute of Education in Singapore.
For Najwa, the battle begins at home. To instil a love for reading in her five-year-old son, she limits his screen time to just 15 minutes a month. Her son reaches for short illustrated books when he wakes up.
“Beyond just expanding vocabulary, reading does so much more for our children,” she said. “Books are portals to a different world – through them, imagination lives.”
