Schools in England are stopping dressing pupils as their favorite literary characters for World Book Day, and experts told MPs they feared the cost of costumes would undermine efforts to increase reading for pleasure.
Jonathan Douglas, chief executive of the National Literacy Trust, said schools were aware of the strains putting on costumes could put on disadvantaged families, telling MPs on the House of Commons education select committee: “Many schools are incredibly sensitive to that and are removing the narrative about dressing up on World Book Day.”
This year’s World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is on Thursday, and many primary schools are encouraging children to take part. But Douglas cautioned that activities like dressing up should not detract from promoting reading.
“The central point of this is that reading for pleasure is a driver of social mobility. Children’s reading for pleasure at the age of 15 is more determinant of their ultimate achievement than their socioeconomic background. Therefore, anything that detracts from it, not simply as a driver of social mobility but as an anti-poverty strategy, is undermining the power of reading for pleasure,” Douglas said.
Helen Hayes, chair of the committee, said World Book Day was “a wonderful national moment” but that the costume element favored “families who are more affluent than others in their ability to get a costume.”
Annie Crombie, co-chief executive of BookTrust, the children’s reading charity, told Hayes: “We see a lot of (schools) introducing costume changes or making dress-up items in art classes, so there are ways around it. But it’s incredibly important because otherwise you risk exacerbating the factors we know, related to stresses in home life, that get in the way of incorporating reading in the first place.”
The World Book Day charity said: “We want to ensure that all children, regardless of household income, can take part in World Book Day and are encouraged to read for pleasure. We suggest many ways to ensure World Book Day celebrations are inclusive, free and fun for everyone.”
MPs’ session on the crisis in reading for pleasure came after the National Literacy Trust found that the proportion of young people who enjoy reading was at its lowest level for 20 years.
Onyinye Iwu, a teacher and children’s author, told MPs that she saw many students struggling to read for pleasure in the early years of secondary school.
“Many communities do not encourage children to read for pleasure, they focus on textbooks: you have to study for exams, you don’t need to read for pleasure because that won’t allow you to get a job. And coming from a migrant background, that’s what you hear constantly. It’s something that needs to change intrinsically, in families and in schools,” he said.
Iwu asked her students why they didn’t read often for pleasure: “A lot of them were like, ‘But miss, we have TikTok, what’s the point?’ And that’s it, you have TikTok, you have Netflix, you have the movie coming out, so why would you read the book?
“,”prompt”:”Share your views”,”displayOnSensitive”:false,”elementId”:”dcf4f4f4-bbee-4d97-95fd-394a6b58e37c”,”title”:””,”isNonCollapsible “:false,”formFields”:({“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”name”,”id”:”19308 4591″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Name”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”text”,”required”:true},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”where_you_live”,”id”:”193084592″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Where do you live? age, background, what you do)”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”text”,”required”:false},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”share_your_views_on_world_book_day_here”,”description”:”Please include as many details as possible. “,”id”:”193084594″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Share your thoughts on World Book Day here”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”textarea”,”required”:true},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”if_you_are_happy_to_please_upload_a_photo_of_yourself_here”,”id”:”193084595″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”If you are happy, upload a photo of yourself here”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”file”,”required”:false},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldRadio”,”name”:”can_we_publish_your_response”,”options”:({“label”:”Yes, completely”,”value”:”Yes, completely”},{“label”:”Yes, but contact me first”,”value”:”Yes, but please contact me first”},{“label”:”Yes, but please keep me anonymous”,”value”:”Yes, but please keep me anonymous”},{“label”:”No, this is just information”,”value”:”No, this is just information”}),”id”:”193084596″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Can we publish your response?”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”radio”,”required”:true},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”phone_number”,”description”:”Your contact details are helpful so that we can contact you for more information.”,”id”:”193084597″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Phone. number”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”text”,”required”:false},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”email_address_”,”description”:”Your contact details are useful so that we can contact you for more information.”,”id”:”193084598″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Email. address “,”hidden”:false,”type”:”text”,”required”:true},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”you_can_add_more_information_here”,”description”:”If you include other people’s names, ask them first.”,”id”:”193084599″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”You can add more information here”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”textarea”,”required”:false},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldRadio”,”name”:”Would you_be_interested_in_talking_to_our_audio_andor_video_teams?”,”options”:({“label”:”Audio only”,”value”:”Audio only”},{“label”:”Video only”,”value”:”Video only”},{“label”:”Audio and video”,”value”:”Audio and video”},{“label”:”No, I’m not interested”,”value”:”No, I’m not interested”}),”id”:”193084600″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Would you be interested in talking to our audio and/or video? teams?”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”radio”,”required”:false}),”_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutBlockElementV2″,”tagName”:”callout-world-book-day”,”activeFrom”:1772496000000,”id”:”750f01b8-42 c2-49ff-927e-9fde59073733″,”calloutsUrl”:”https://callouts.guardianapis.com/formstack-campaign/submit”,”formId”:6450765},”pageId”:”education/2026/mar/03/schools-england-dressing-up-world-book-day-mps-“}”>
