# The Reading Crisis Hitting Aussie Kids

An episode of [Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1082244480), 20 Aug 2026, 12 min.

Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/187/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/b69b2795-5503-4de1-ac91-af460017906e/e9245f0d-a5ae-422b-9ad5-b49a00b075ac/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a05f1702-0c0e-4b0f-8014-af460017907c

One in three Australian kids is struggling to read at the expected level. In a classroom of 30, that’s 10 children falling behind. Justin speaks with Rachel Amorosakra from Reading Out of Poverty about what poor literacy looks like for kids, why access to books in the first five years matters so much, and the confronting reality for children in remote communities who may not own a single book. With Book Week approaching, they look at a practical way families can help put culturally appropriate books into the hands of children in East Arnhem Land. KEY POINTS • One in three Australian children is not meeting grade-level expectations in reading. • Struggling to read affects far more than English. It can make maths, science and other subjects harder too. • Falling behind can leave children embarrassed, disengaged and believing they simply aren't smart. • The first five years are critical for building vocabulary, imagination and early literacy skills. • Books create connection between children and caregivers, not just reading skills. • Many children in remote East Arnhem Land communities have little access to books. • Reading Out of Poverty is providing culturally appropriate literacy packs to children this Book Week. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE “Books aren't just about the reading itself. It's about building connection with parents and caregivers.” RESOURCES MENTIONED • Reading Out of Poverty • Book Week • Reading Out of Poverty literacy packs for children in East Arnhem Land • Each $25 donation funds one literacy pack containing five age-appropriate books and educational resources. ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS • Read with your child regularly, especially during the early years. • Make books easy to reach and part of everyday family life. • Let young children choose books they want to hear again and again. • Use stories as time to connect, talk and explore ideas together. • This Book Week, consider donating a literacy pack to help a child in East Arnhem Land access books of their own. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Hello, this is the Happy Families Podcast. One in three
[0:08] Speaker 1: Australian kids is not reading proficiently. Let me say that again.
[0:10] Speaker 1: One in three Australian kids is not reading proficiently. They're
[0:17] Speaker 1: pretty good at typing what I need to into Netflix
[0:19] Speaker 1: or TikTok, but not reading proficiently in a classroom of
[0:24] Speaker 1: twenty four kids. And there are too many classrooms of
[0:25] Speaker 1: twenty four, they're usually bigger. That's eight kids. Let's multiply
[0:29] Speaker 1: that out. One third of thirty kids in a classroom.
[0:32] Speaker 1: Ten kids are not reading proficiently. And in some remote
[0:35] Speaker 1: communities there are literally kids who have never owned a
[0:39] Speaker 1: single book of their own today. What that does to
[0:42] Speaker 1: a child? Why the first five years decides so much
[0:44] Speaker 1: of it? And what's happening this Book Week which starts
[0:46] Speaker 1: tomorrow but technically the schools will kick it off on
[0:48] Speaker 1: Monday to put books in those kids' hands. Stay with us. Hello,
[0:55] Speaker 1: this is the Happy Families podcast where you get real
[0:57] Speaker 1: parenting solutions every single day. It straight as downloaded parent
[1:00] Speaker 1: in podcast. My name's doctor Justin Pilson. Normally on a Friday,
[1:03] Speaker 1: I'm chatting with my wife missus Happy Families about I'll
[1:07] Speaker 1: do better tomorrow, the stuff that we did right, the
[1:08] Speaker 1: stuff that we did wrong, how we're nailing it or
[1:11] Speaker 1: how we're failing it, so that you can make your
[1:12] Speaker 1: family happier. But as you would have known or heard
[1:15] Speaker 1: from last week, Missus Happy Families is in the US
[1:18] Speaker 1: with three of the kids, and I've got one of them.
[1:21] Speaker 1: Two of them have moved out. I have to kind
[1:23] Speaker 1: of do the maths. It feels like we've got a
[1:24] Speaker 1: big family. And so today, rather than talking about the
[1:27] Speaker 1: successes and failures that we've had since Kylie's not here,
[1:31] Speaker 1: I'm having a chat with Rachel amorusaka Rachel is from
[1:36] Speaker 1: Roope reading out of Poverty, and my conversation with her
[1:41] Speaker 1: is about what is going on with kids and reading
[1:43] Speaker 1: in Australia generally, but specifically what's happening for those kids
[1:48] Speaker 1: who are unfortunately the most impoverished and the most distant. Rachel,
[1:53] Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you're on the pod. Thanks for
[1:55] Speaker 1: joining me. One in three kids is not reading proficiently.
[2:00] Speaker 1: In other words, in a standard class of thirty kids,
[2:02] Speaker 1: that's ten of them who are struggling to read. When
[2:05] Speaker 1: I was writing my book about boys, the data shows
[2:08] Speaker 1: that one eighth of adolescent boys Grade nine boys are
[2:13] Speaker 1: functionally illiterate. So I'd love for you to just step
[2:17] Speaker 1: that up for me. What does that actually look like
[2:20] Speaker 1: day to day for that child and for the family
[2:23] Speaker 1: at home.
[2:24] Speaker 2: Hi, justin thank you so much for having me on.
[2:27] Speaker 2: So yes, it's such a huge nime to sit with
[2:29] Speaker 2: one in three children, such big context to put it
[2:32] Speaker 2: into ten children in a classroom of thirty. The Grandin
[2:35] Speaker 2: Institute actually looked into this using Knaplan data and this
[2:39] Speaker 2: is the fourth year in a row that one in
[2:41] Speaker 2: three children in Australia aren't meeting grade level expectations and reading.
[2:45] Speaker 2: So for a child, this can look like struggling to
[2:48] Speaker 2: sound out words whether classmates are reading easily, or avoiding
[2:52] Speaker 2: reading aloud in class because you feel embarrassed. It can
[2:55] Speaker 2: also mean falling behind in subjects, not because you don't
[2:58] Speaker 2: understand the concept, but because you can't keep up with
[3:00] Speaker 2: the reading required to get there.
[3:02] Speaker 1: It's not just an English issue. You could be in science,
[3:05] Speaker 1: so you could be in math, so you can be
[3:06] Speaker 1: in health and pe and because you're not reading well,
[3:09] Speaker 1: you're not getting what's going on there as well.
[3:12] Speaker 2: Exactly, it's such like a big flow on effect, and
[3:15] Speaker 2: it also goes beyond the classroom because a kid who
[3:18] Speaker 2: falls behind in reading can start to see themselves as
[3:20] Speaker 2: not a reader or not smart, and it shapes how
[3:22] Speaker 2: they engage with school from that point on.
[3:25] Speaker 3: So if most kids who don't feel.
[3:28] Speaker 2: Embarrassing class or can't read or can't keep up, they
[3:31] Speaker 2: don't want to go to school, and then you take
[3:33] Speaker 2: a sick day here and there because of how you feel.
[3:37] Speaker 1: And education is just so vital for our children's success. Rachel,
[3:41] Speaker 1: give me a snapshot of group Reading out of Poverty
[3:44] Speaker 1: because my take on this, having worked in education and
[3:48] Speaker 1: around education for twenty plus years now, is that while
[3:53] Speaker 1: there are middle class and wealthy kids who will struggle
[3:58] Speaker 1: with literacy from time to time, the biggest literacy challenges
[4:01] Speaker 1: seem to be in the lower levels of our socioeconomic
[4:05] Speaker 1: strata in Australia. That may be politically incorrect to say,
[4:09] Speaker 1: it may sound horrible, but I think the evidence would
[4:13] Speaker 1: point in that direction.
[4:13] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, of course.
[4:15] Speaker 2: So Reading out of Poverty, or we call it ROOF,
[4:17] Speaker 2: is a Melbourne based charity. So we've been around since
[4:20] Speaker 2: twenty thirteen to give children age zero to five the
[4:23] Speaker 2: foundational literacy skills they need to flourish in disadvantage communities
[4:27] Speaker 2: in Australia. S Yeah, we call it disadvantaged communities and
[4:31] Speaker 2: we work throughout all of Australia.
[4:33] Speaker 3: We heavily focus on the early years.
[4:36] Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say, so zero to
[4:38] Speaker 1: five is what Roop's about. Why does that window matter
[4:42] Speaker 1: so much? I mean, there's a lot of countries that
[4:44] Speaker 1: don't even start talking about reading with kids until oh, sorry,
[4:47] Speaker 1: teaching kids to read until they're six or seven or eight.
[4:51] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[4:52] Speaker 2: Yeah, So the first five years of a child's life
[4:54] Speaker 2: is like when their brain is developing faster than at
[4:57] Speaker 2: any other point in their life. So vocabulary, imagination, and
[5:00] Speaker 2: early literacy skills are being built in that window. Kids
[5:05] Speaker 2: who grew up with books at home tend to start
[5:07] Speaker 2: school feeling more confident and ready to learn.
[5:11] Speaker 1: Yeah. I was just thinking about my granddaughter. One of
[5:13] Speaker 1: my favorite things to do on a Sunday night when
[5:14] Speaker 1: the family visits is to lay down on the bed
[5:16] Speaker 1: and I'll read stories to her for forty forty five minutes.
[5:19] Speaker 1: And she's only three, but she at the age of three,
[5:23] Speaker 1: she knows what books are. She knows you turn the pages,
[5:25] Speaker 1: you don't swipe because she doesn't have screen. She has books.
[5:28] Speaker 1: But more than that, she loves books. She can't wait
[5:31] Speaker 1: to lay down and get involved and get invested in books,
[5:34] Speaker 1: which means that she loves the idea of reading. She
[5:37] Speaker 1: can't wait, even though she's only three, She can't wait
[5:40] Speaker 1: to be reading for herself. Right.
[5:42] Speaker 2: Yeah, books aren't just about the reading itself. It's about
[5:45] Speaker 2: building connection with parents and caregivers. It can spark your
[5:48] Speaker 2: child's imagination and it can actually help them learn about
[5:51] Speaker 2: emotional well billing too.
[5:53] Speaker 1: Rachel amorus Akra is from Reading Out of Poverty. Book
[5:57] Speaker 1: Week is next week. Rachel, after the break, let's have
[6:00] Speaker 1: a chat about what you'd love to see happen in
[6:01] Speaker 1: book week in schools around the nation. And I want
[6:04] Speaker 1: to speak specifically about the work you're doing to try
[6:08] Speaker 1: to help those people from the most disadvantaged communities to
[6:12] Speaker 1: find a love of books and reading and get books
[6:15] Speaker 1: into their house. That's next on the Happy Families podcast.
[6:25] Speaker 1: We're talking book Week next week. I don't know if
[6:28] Speaker 1: you've got your costumes ready for your kids to travel
[6:31] Speaker 1: off to school and look like their favorite character from
[6:33] Speaker 1: their books. Rachel Amarasakra. This Book Week you as a
[6:38] Speaker 1: roup organization are Reading out of poverty organization are focused
[6:42] Speaker 1: on East Arnham Land. So paint the picture for me.
[6:46] Speaker 1: Where is East Arnham Land? Everyone knows it's at the
[6:48] Speaker 1: top of the territory, but I need to know more
[6:50] Speaker 1: than that. Who's living there and what does a child's
[6:54] Speaker 1: access to books look like in East Arnham Land in
[6:58] Speaker 1: twenty twenty six.
[6:59] Speaker 2: So land is right up in the far northeast corner
[7:02] Speaker 2: of the Northern Territory. We're about one thousand kilometers from Darwin,
[7:06] Speaker 2: and it's home to one of the oldest living cultures
[7:08] Speaker 2: on Earth, stretching back to more than sixty thousand years.
[7:13] Speaker 2: With the deep remoteness of the communities there, it brings
[7:16] Speaker 2: very real challenges. Kids often lack access to food, they
[7:19] Speaker 2: can experience poor sleep because of overcrowding, and they also
[7:23] Speaker 2: have very little access to resources like books. A lot
[7:26] Speaker 2: of the children right now don't own a single book,
[7:29] Speaker 2: and that's what we're trying to change this Book Week.
[7:32] Speaker 1: When it comes to these East onnam Land communities, what's
[7:35] Speaker 1: the reading situation like? Are parents able to sit down
[7:40] Speaker 1: and read to the kids at the parents literate? Do
[7:43] Speaker 1: they have books on the bookshelves, a children having that
[7:47] Speaker 1: snuggle time where they get to lay down with a
[7:49] Speaker 1: parent and open up a book and look at those pages.
[7:53] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[7:53] Speaker 2: So sadly there's the gap between adults also being illiterate unfortunately,
[7:58] Speaker 2: and then therefore not being able to read to their child.
[8:00] Speaker 2: And that's where having culturally appropriate books in the right
[8:04] Speaker 2: languages is going to help make the difference.
[8:07] Speaker 3: And that's what we're doing this book Week.
[8:08] Speaker 2: We're fundraising to get culturally appropriate books into the hands
[8:12] Speaker 2: of these families. So number one, they can see themselves
[8:14] Speaker 2: in the stories, the families and the children, and they
[8:17] Speaker 2: can understand the language that they're coming in. It's not
[8:20] Speaker 2: just throwing English at them and expecting both the child
[8:23] Speaker 2: and the adult to learn.
[8:25] Speaker 3: I would say majority of the families there do not
[8:28] Speaker 3: own a book let alone.
[8:29] Speaker 2: A bookshelf of books, which is so normal to the
[8:31] Speaker 2: everyday person to have books left, right and center. Because
[8:37] Speaker 2: they're so remote, access to libraries is also very very
[8:40] Speaker 2: poor to even go borrow a book let alone getting
[8:43] Speaker 2: access to books at school.
[8:45] Speaker 1: Rachel every now and again, when I'm in Sydney, I'm
[8:46] Speaker 1: traveling between the international and the domestic terminals along I
[8:49] Speaker 1: think it's I think I think it's called Joys Drive
[8:51] Speaker 1: or something like that. And there's this sign it's been
[8:52] Speaker 1: there for years, as big billboard as you're heading from
[8:55] Speaker 1: international to domestic above the freeway. I don't know if
[8:58] Speaker 1: you've seen it or not. I can't remember exactly what
[9:01] Speaker 1: it says, but there's a picture of an Indigenous child
[9:03] Speaker 1: I would assume from one of those remote disadvantaged communities
[9:05] Speaker 1: that you're describing, and it has a sentence that essentially
[9:10] Speaker 1: says it gives an Indigenous Australian literary statistic, basically says
[9:16] Speaker 1: this really significant percentage of Indigenous kids in Australia can't read.
[9:21] Speaker 1: And then it says something quite provocative, and again I'm
[9:24] Speaker 1: misquoting it, I'm paraphrasing it, but essentially it says if
[9:27] Speaker 1: these were white children, we wouldn't stand for it. Something
[9:32] Speaker 1: along those lines. It's kind of hard to read, and
[9:36] Speaker 1: the reality is I think that it's right. So at route,
[9:40] Speaker 1: you're doing some work for Book Week, because we celebrate books,
[9:43] Speaker 1: we want our kids to be involved in books. We
[9:44] Speaker 1: know how valuable it is. You've created some literacy packs.
[9:49] Speaker 1: The whole idea is let's get some books into East
[9:52] Speaker 1: Arnham Land to help these kids to become much more
[9:56] Speaker 1: literate than they presently are, to close that gap. Tell
[9:58] Speaker 1: me a bit about what you're doing for Book Week.
[10:00] Speaker 2: So this Book Week, which runs from the twenty second
[10:03] Speaker 2: to twenty eighth of August, we're fundraising to get books
[10:05] Speaker 2: directly into the hands of these children. We're raising funds
[10:09] Speaker 2: to buy culturally appropriate books to put into literacy paths.
[10:12] Speaker 2: A literacy path is put together by our amazing volunteers
[10:16] Speaker 2: and it includes five age appropriate books along with some
[10:19] Speaker 2: educational resources like step by step learning how to read,
[10:23] Speaker 2: some bookmarks, some information for teachers and more. We'd love
[10:28] Speaker 2: to see people get involved in share broups mission. The
[10:31] Speaker 2: easiest way today is to donate. Every twenty five dollars
[10:35] Speaker 2: sends one literacy path to a child in East Arnenware
[10:38] Speaker 2: this Book Week.
[10:39] Speaker 1: All right, Rachel. So what we'll do is we'll link
[10:41] Speaker 1: to the roop website and the donation site in the
[10:44] Speaker 1: podcast show notes. Guys, what are we talking about? Twenty
[10:46] Speaker 1: five bucks? If you can spare twenty five bucks, let's
[10:49] Speaker 1: make a difference. It actually feels really nice to do
[10:51] Speaker 1: something for other people twenty five bucks. It might mean
[10:54] Speaker 1: that you don't get to take the kids out for
[10:55] Speaker 1: a smoothier on ice cream on the weekend, but we
[10:58] Speaker 1: could actually change kids' lives by putting books in their hands.
[11:00] Speaker 1: Books make our lives richer. Details in the show notes.
[11:04] Speaker 1: Rachel amoros Akara from Roupe really appreciate the conversation. Thank
[11:08] Speaker 1: you so much. Thank you all the details in the
[11:10] Speaker 1: show notes. To find out more about UP and what
[11:12] Speaker 1: they're doing, or to volunteer and get involved in increasing literacy,
[11:16] Speaker 1: especially in disadvantaged communities throughout Australia. Happy Families Podcasts audio
[11:20] Speaker 1: and sound engineering by Justin Ruland from Bridge Media. Mim
[11:22] Speaker 1: Hammonds looks after our admin and other support and if
[11:25] Speaker 1: you'd like more information to make your family happier, you'll
[11:28] Speaker 1: find it at Happy families dot com dot you

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.