“Kids can’t read long texts”... 91% of elementary school teachers say support for reading education should be expanded

[Financial News] As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital devices increases, at least nine out of 10 elementary school teachers said it was urgent to expand support for reading education to improve students’ literacy and thinking skills.
According to i-Scream Media on the 22nd, a survey on the reading education environment conducted among 3,299 elementary school teachers from the 1st to the 15th found that 91.1% of respondents said schools needed to provide more time and budget for reading education, as well as greater support for teaching materials. Some 98.1% of the participating teachers rated school reading education as important to students’ cognitive development.
Teachers identified disparities in students’ reading abilities as the biggest problem in classroom instruction. Some 85.4% of respondents felt there was a wide gap in reading levels among students in their classes. The most commonly cited reason students struggle to read books was difficulty concentrating on long texts, at 41.6%. This was followed by a lack of interest in reading itself, at 21.1%, and a preference for videos or short-form content, at 19.1%.
The wide differences in students’ reading levels are also increasing the burden on teachers as they prepare lessons. When asked about the difficulties they face in preparing and conducting reading lessons, teachers most often cited providing instruction tailored to each student’s reading level, at 52.9%, followed by finding time to prepare lessons, at 49.3%.
Teachers who said conditions for reading education were inadequate cited insufficient time to run reading education programs as the main reason, at 51.6%, followed by a lack of books and variety, at 28.9%. Student activity sheets accounted for 79.8% of the instructional content teachers said was most needed, indicating a need for materials to support differentiated instruction.
Heo Ju-hwan, CEO of i-Scream Media, said, “As literacy and thinking skills that enable students to understand information provided by AI and make their own judgments become increasingly important, the role of reading education in laying the foundation for these skills is also growing,” adding, “We will strive to provide a variety of reading education content that reflects the needs of teachers identified in this survey, helps them provide tailored reading instruction, and eases the burden of lesson preparation.”

[email protected] Kim Man-gi Reporter