A national study shows a drop in New Zealand children’s enjoyment of reading, writing, and maths.
The proportion of older primary school students who say they do not enjoy these subjects has doubled since 2018/19, and the same trend is seen in those who feel they are not good at them.
The figures are drawn from the Curriculum Insights Study and its predecessor, the National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement (NMSSA). The research was carried out for the Ministry of Education by the University of Otago and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER).
The percentage of Year 8 students who said they did not like reading rose from 8% in 2019 to 11% in 2023 and then to 16% in 2025.
The percentage of Year 8 students who did not agree they were good at reading was 6% in 2019, fell to 4% in 2023, and then rose sharply to 13% in 2025.
Year 6 students’ enjoyment of reading also declined, with 11% saying they did not enjoy the subject in 2025, up from 4% in 2023.
Over the same period, the proportion who believed they were not good at reading rose from 2% to 10%.
Meanwhile, Year 3 students showed a mixed trend: the share who said they disliked reading fell from 13% in 2023 to 10% in 2025, while the proportion who believed they were good at reading also dropped from 15% to 8% over the same period.
The share of Year 8 students who did not like maths rose steadily over time, from 9% in 2018 to 13% in 2022, reaching 19% last year.
The percentage of Year 8 students who believed they were not good at maths rose steadily over the period, increasing from 9% in 2018 to 12% in 2022, and reaching 19% last year.
Sue McDowall from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER), who is also one of the researchers, said some of the decline may be due to changes in how the questions were asked; children were asked about their enjoyment after completing a series of tests, whereas in earlier years the questions were included within a survey.
“We see internationally and in New Zealand a general overall downward trend in reading motivation over time.”
McDowall said the study did not explain why enjoyment was falling, and there was insufficient evidence to determine whether the decline had accelerated.
“There’s some speculation and hypotheses out there, also in the international literature, to do with screen time, for example, although we do have to remember that students do read on screens as well as on paper… but we don’t really know the reason.”
“We know there’s a bi-directional relationship between being motivated to read and your achievement as a reader.”
“It works both ways, so that students who are successful readers, who achieve well on reading, are motivated readers. And if students’ reading motivation is high, then they achieve well.”
McDowall said teachers should focus not just on helping children read and understand texts, but also on developing their ability to critically analyse and use them effectively.
“It’s also important that teachers provide children with opportunities to engage with texts and to read for pleasure, to read to meet their own interests and needs, to become motivated readers and see reading as something that they want to do in their own time.”