London - Researchers claim to have come up with a solution to one of the thorniest problems in the education world - the poor reading standard of boys.
A study for the National Literacy Trust shows a remarkable improvement in reading ability amongst boys who do their reading online through ebooks.
The researchers studied the boys' reading performance for an average of 4.2 months, and found that their reading age improved by 8.4 months during that period. Girls also improved at a better rate than the norm - showing a 7.2-month improvement.
The study went on to show the percentage of boys who found reading difficult dropped from 28 percent to 15.9 percent.
In addition, twice as many boys said at the end of the period that reading was “cool”. Asked why they preferred to read on screen, one pupil said: “When you read on paper, it's a bit boring. On a tablet, it feels more interesting.”
The report concluded: “Finding ways to help children to enjoy reading more and motivating them to read more often has the potential to address long-standing achievement gaps.”
The study covered nearly 500 eight to 16-year-olds in 40 schools - and ran from between two to eight months. A survey of 30 032 children which ran alongside the study showed 88.6 percent said they read using technology. It noted that the number of them reading ebooks tripled between 2010 and 2014.
The Independent