October 21, 2026
Every school wants learners to become confident, capable readers. But knowing where you want to get to and getting every learner there are two very different things.
Research suggests there isn’t one simple barrier to literacy success. Instead, schools can find themselves navigating a mix of changing reading habits, limited time, competing priorities, alongside differences in students’ starting points, abilities and needs, and wider pressures that reach beyond the school gates.
While the pressures and priorities may look different from one school or education system to another, many of the questions are the same: are learners getting sufficient reading time, are they reading enough high-quality texts, and do educators have the time and insight to understand what they need and act?
And these challenges rarely sit neatly on their own. So, what are some of the biggest barriers to literacy success, and what could be getting in the way?
Reading engagement remains a challenge
There are some encouraging signs, but the bigger picture around reading engagement remains challenging.
In the UK, National Literacy Trust research found a small increase in reading enjoyment and daily reading in 2026 after several years of decline. The survey drew on responses from 125,375 children and young people across 479 UK schools.
In 2026, 36.1% of children and young people said they enjoyed reading in their free time, while 20.3% of 8 to 18-year-olds said they read daily. The National Literacy Trust says these increases should still be seen in the context of a longer-term downward trend.
Enjoyment and reading frequency are closely connected too. Nearly half (49.8%) of children and young people who enjoyed reading read daily, compared with just 4.5% of those who didn’t.
Getting children reading, then, isn’t simply about providing books or time. Creating positive reading experiences and helping learners build regular reading habits matter too.
Access can differ too. UK research from the National Literacy Trust in 2025 found that 10.3% of children and young people aged 5 to 18 did not have a book of their own in 2025. Among 8 to 18-year-olds receiving free school meals, this rose to 15.7%, compared with 9% of those not receiving free school meals.
Schools know what can make a difference, but finding the time is hard
Educators aren’t short of expertise.
Our Between the Lines research with 1,013 UK teachers found that 91% were aware of the evidence around 15 minutes of daily reading, while 82% were confident their school had the expertise to support struggling readers.
Putting that knowledge into practice is where things can get harder. Less than half of schools in our UK research had 15 minutes or more of dedicated reading time. In secondary schools, that figure fell to 28%. Timetable constraints were cited as a barrier by 71% of teachers, while 53% pointed to competing curriculum priorities.
It’s an important distinction. The challenge isn’t necessarily knowing that reading matters. It’s creating the time, space and consistency to make it happen.
Time pressures can affect something else too: the ability to turn information into action.
Schools may already have valuable information about learner progress. But educators still need time to understand what it is telling them, identify where support is needed and decide what to do next.
Sometimes, the challenge isn’t gathering more information. It’s being able to make sense of what you already have and act on it alongside other curriculum priorities and pressures.
Literacy doesn’t stop at the school gate
What happens outside school matters too.
In our UK Between the Lines research, teachers identified screen time (86%) and insufficient support at home (82%) among the biggest challenges children face with reading. While 91% of teachers knew about the evidence around daily reading, only 23% believed parents were aware of it.
The context will differ between countries, communities and individual families. But schools cannot control every influence on a learner’s relationship with reading.
That makes the relationship between school, home, engagement and regular reading practice an important part of the wider picture.
Literacy challenges aren’t the same for every learner
Perhaps most importantly, there is no single literacy experience.
Even within the same school or classroom, two learners who appear to be struggling with reading may need very different support.
One might find decoding difficult, while another can read the words accurately but struggle to understand their meaning.
The widely used Simple View of Reading framework helps illustrate why identifying the specific barrier matters. It describes reading as having two basic components: word recognition or decoding and language comprehension.
This means an overall reading comprehension result alone may not identify whether a learner’s particular difficulty lies with decoding, language comprehension or both.
So, improving literacy isn’t simply about raising an overall score. It’s about understanding who needs support, what might be getting in their way and what they need next.
Understanding the barriers to literacy success
Identifying the barriers to reading progress can help schools understand where to focus. But there isn’t one thing standing between every school and better literacy outcomes.
For some learners, it might be how often they read. For others, engagement or a specific literacy challenge could be part of the picture. And for schools, finding enough time to spot those needs and respond consistently can be a challenge in itself.
It raises some useful questions:
- Are learners getting enough opportunities to read regularly?
- Do we understand the specific needs behind a learner’s barriers to reading?
- Can educators easily turn the information they have into meaningful action?
- Are engagement and experiences outside school being considered alongside attainment?
The answers are likely to look different from one school to another. And that’s OK. The important thing is understanding where your biggest opportunities lie.
From understanding the problem to taking action
A strong literacy strategy starts with seeing the bigger picture.
Schools need to understand where learners are, identify what may be holding them back and decide where focused action could make the greatest difference.
That means looking beyond a single score, challenge or initiative and bringing together what you know about attainment, reading practice, engagement and individual learner needs.
If you’re beginning to think about where your school could focus next, explore our literacy solutions and see how Renaissance supports schools at different stages of their literacy journey.
Keep exploring literacy
There’s no single route to literacy success, and schools don’t need to tackle every challenge at once.
A good starting point is identifying the barriers to literacy success for your learners and your school.
Our Literacy Content Hub brings together research, insights and practical resources to help you explore the challenges, ask the right questions and decide where to focus next.
Because getting literacy right isn’t about finding one silver bullet. It’s about understanding what’s getting in the way and giving every learner the opportunity to succeed.