Bacalah Singapura: Reading Habits in Singapore (1960s–1990s)

By Janice Loo

You are never too young to start reading, 1959. Carolina Ng Lee Khiam Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore (Media - Image no. 19980005136 - 0052).

In June 2025, the National Library Board released the results of the 2024 National Reading Habits Study which found that 89 percent of Singapore adults read more than once a week. News (76 percent) and online articles (65 percent) were the most popular reading materials, surpassing books (28 percent), magazines (16 percent) and reports (12 percent). While respondents acknowledged the benefits of reading, most said that they tended to spend more time on other activities (62 percent) or get bored after reading for a while (38 percent).¹

This challenge of cultivating a reading habit is not a new one, as seen in studies from the 1960s through to the 1990s on reading levels in Singapore. Given that reading is crucial to learning, access to information, as well as social and economic participation, reading habits – how often people read, what they read and in which languages – go beyond personal leisure choices and have been seen as matters of national consequence. 

Reading from her own pavement library to kill time, this “librarian” waits for book lovers, 1960. There was a deposit of $1.00 depending on the book and a rental fee of 50 cents a book for a week at these “libraries”. Courtesy of the National Archives of Singapore (Media - Image no. 19980002619 - 0093).

Education, Bilingualism and Children’s Reading Habits

Singapore gained independence amidst much uncertainty on 9 August 1965. The 1960s and 1970s were a “survival-driven” phase as the government focused on creating a literate and skilled workforce to support rapid industrialisation and secure the future of the fledgling nation. Mathematics, science and technical subjects were emphasised to prepare youth for employment and continuous upskilling.² At the same time, bilingual education in English and a mother tongue – Malay, Mandarin or Tamil – was implemented.³ While English was necessary for business and for acquiring technical knowledge (where literature in vernacular languages was scarce), mother tongue languages were deemed essential for the preservation of cultural values and traditions, and were used for civic education.⁴

This educational landscape formed the backdrop for the dozen reading surveys conducted in the 1960s and 1970s – largely by education researchers – to examine the reading habits and preferences of primary and secondary school students.⁵

The earliest such study was initiated in 1966 by the Research Unit of the Teachers’ Training College (TTC), which surveyed over 1,500 primary school pupils from the English, Chinese and Malay language streams. It aimed to provide insights to parents, teachers, librarians and education authorities in supporting children’s reading development.⁶

The Teachers’ Training College conducted the first reading survey in 1966. It surveyed over 1,500 primary school pupils from the English, Chinese and Malay language streams. Newspapers were the most popular reading material, followed by comics and magazines. Collection of the National Library (call no. RCLOS 028.9095957 TEA).

This study found that newspapers were the most popular reading material, followed by comics and magazines.⁷ It also revealed low levels of reading in a second language, which was highlighted as a “grave concern” given the importance of bilingualism. Additionally, students showed a preference for fiction over nonfiction, with classroom and school libraries serving as their primary sources of reading material due to convenient access.⁸

However, there were limitations with the survey’s research design. One reviewer noted that the method of administering formal questionnaires in a school setting likely skewed the results, with children giving socially desirable responses rather than their genuine preferences.⁹ The questionable validity of responses was apparent in two survey items: one where a high proportion – almost 60 percent – of children claimed to prefer reading over TV, and another where a significant number improbably indicated they would rather spend their pocket money on books over toys, sweets or cinema tickets.¹⁰

The report’s compilers themselves acknowledged that such positive responses were likely influenced by the classroom environment and the teacher’s presence.¹¹ Despite its shortcomings, the TTC study was a commendable first step in sketching a complex subject and underscored the need for more research. 

Further surveys in the late 1970s, conducted mostly by staff and students at the Institute of Education (IE), were spurred by problems besetting the education system: high failure and attrition rates, low literacy levels and ineffective bilingualism.¹² One underlying cause, as identified in a landmark 1978 education review, was that 85 percent of schoolchildren did not speak the languages of instruction (primarily English and Mandarin) at home, which hampered learning both in and outside of the classroom.¹³

A 1978 survey by IE revealed poor levels of reading, especially in second languages among Primary Six pupils.¹⁴ This was troubling as the primary school years are a critical period for developing lifelong reading habits.¹⁵ Dismayed by the findings, Education Minister Chua Sian Chin stressed the importance of reading to national goals at the 1978 Festival of Books and Book Fair: “We will not be able to succeed in our effort of improving language learning and attain our objective of bilingualism unless we get more and more pupils to read books and magazines in their first and second languages.”¹⁶

The IE survey approached reading as a socially embedded activity shaped by parents, teachers and peers. While newspapers were present in 89 percent of households and read by 64 percent of parents, book reading was markedly rare, with only 2 percent of parents reading books and a mere 10 percent encouraging their children to do so.¹⁷ It was thus little wonder that children tended to gravitate towards newspaper reading rather than books. The majority of parents in the sample were Chinese-speaking, blue-collar workers, whose children consistently reported having the fewest comics, books and magazines at home. This underscored the impact of socioeconomic status on both access to varied reading materials and the development of reading habits.¹⁸

The home environment plays an integral role in nurturing the reading habit from a young age, 1989. Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore (Media - Image no. 19990001247 - 0090).

Concluding that little could be done about the home environment, the IE report focused on the role of schools. It emphasised that teachers needed to be readers themselves to effectively model reading habits, and recommended incorporating regular reading and book-related activities, like story dramatisations, into lessons.¹⁹

The IE survey also raised concerns about the time children spent watching television at the expense of reading, with 62 percent watching one to three hours daily and 21 percent exceeding three hours. Television emerged as the greatest competitor to reading because it functioned as a shared family activity that naturally drew children in and, unlike reading, could be enjoyed with little linguistic competence.²⁰

Adult Readers, Lifelong Workers

While research into children’s reading habits began shortly after independence, it was only in 1980 that the first national survey of adult reading habits was conducted.²¹

In 1975, S. Gopinathan, chairman of the National Book Development Council of Singapore (now the Singapore Book Council),²² highlighted the dearth of data on what Singaporeans read. He noted: “We know we have certain advantages; very high per capita income, easy distribution because we are geographically small, literacy rates are very high. In theory, these should lead to a certain level of reading, and not only of textbooks. But there is no real documentation on what people in fact read.”²³

Consequently, the council commissioned the first National Readership Survey in 1980, aiming to gather data on adult reading habits, book-buying behaviour and library usage. It sampled around 2,000 non-schooling Singaporeans aged 15 to 49 from about 800 households.²⁴

The results, published in 1981, came as no surprise. Television dominated leisure time (48.3 percent), followed by music (15 percent) and then reading (13.1 percent). While over 90 percent of respondents engaged in some form of reading weekly (with only 2.7 percent reporting no reading at all), this had to be balanced against the finding that 37.9 percent did not read books and 33.7 percent spent less than three hours weekly on them. In contrast, newspapers were widely read, with only 2.4 percent non-readers and 39.6 percent dedicating three to five hours weekly to them.²⁵

The results of the first survey of adult reading habits were published in 1981 and showed that 38 percent of respondents did not read books. G.P. Reichelt Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore (Media - Image no. 20130000080 - 0055).

The survey also found that a mere 16.1 percent of respondents were members of the National Library.²⁶ Most people obtained books and magazines by borrowing from friends and relatives, or purchasing them from bookshops rather than using the public libraries.²⁷

The findings highlighted socioeconomic correlations with reading habits. Heavy readers (those who read more than six hours weekly) tended to have higher levels of education, worked in the professional, administrative and clerical occupations, and earned higher incomes. Conversely, non-readers generally lacked formal education or did not complete primary education, worked in production or service roles, and had lower incomes.²⁸

A Teochew opera actress finding time to read the newspaper in between performances, 1970s. Ronni Pinsler Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore (Media - Image no. 20090000102 - 0785).

As Singapore shifted towards capital-intensive, high-technology industries in the early 1980s, national survival again hinged on the power of reading, as Minister for Communications Yeo Ning Hong emphasised at the 1984 National Reading Month launch: “In order to keep pace and not be left behind in the backwaters, Singaporeans must therefore be agile and adapt to the rapid changes that we now see taking place in many industrialised countries… The ability to read will provide us with the key to upgrading ourselves… The person who stops reading upon leaving school or university increases his own chance of stagnation and irrelevance in future economic developments.”²⁹

A poster for National Reading Month, 26 August to 23 September 1982. National Book Development Council of Singapore Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore (Media - Image no. 19990003740 - 0027).

A Cultured People

In the mid-1980s, the government launched a new vision for Singapore to become a “Nation of Excellence”. This would encompass the development of a cultivated society that First Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong described as “a society of well-read, well-informed citizens, a refined and gracious people, a thoughtful people, a society of sparkling ideas, a place where art, literature and music flourish” and “not a materialistic, consumeristic society where wealth is flaunted and money spent thoughtlessly”.³⁰

Aside from the intrinsic value of arts and culture, the government saw its economic potential as a new growth sector following the 1985 recession.³¹ To that end, the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts (ACCA) was established in 1988 to develop a long-term plan for arts and cultural development in Singapore. The Committee on Literary Arts was formed to assist the ACCA, and recognising the importance of reading, a Sub-Committee on Reading was created to assess the reading habit in Singapore and make recommendations for its promotion.³²

Drawing on the 1980 and 1988 national reading surveys,³³ as well as the 1987 National Survey on Arts and Culture, the Sub-Committee on Reading found that despite a high literacy rate of 94 percent in 1988, Singaporeans read a limited range of subjects, preferring popular fiction, followed by cookery and hobby books, while literary works and drama ranked last.³⁴ On the bright side, more were reading for pleasure as well as for information and knowledge.³⁵ Although the steady growth in library membership was another encouraging sign, the sub-committee noted that existing library services struggled to keep up with public demand.³⁶

A young reader enjoying Old Master Q (老夫子; Lao Fu Zi) comics at a neighbourhood bookstore in Tanjong Pagar, 1989. Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore (Media - Image no. 19980007362 - 0048).

The sub-committee identified several crisis areas, chiefly the utilitarian view of reading as a means for academic or career advancement. Once again, the same issue was brought up: developing young readers required the involvement of both parents and teachers. 

Recognising that building a reading culture required community-wide efforts, recommendations included training for parents and teachers, creating reading corners in housing estates, enhanced resourcing of libraries and the book council, as well as partnerships with media, publishers and bookshops.³⁷

A Developed (Reading) Nation

In 1993, the National Library commissioned a survey which sampled some 2,000 respondents aged 13 to 69 from 1,000 households. The survey painted a mixed picture: while a small but growing segment of Singaporeans had developed a passion for reading, an increasing number of literate individuals had disengaged from books.³⁸ The percentage of literate persons who had read a book in the last 12 months had dropped to 50 percent from 57 percent in 1980. However, among readers, those spending three to nine hours weekly increased from 41 percent to 65 percent, and those reading 10 hours or more rose from 6 percent to 19 percent.³⁹

Learning to read at the National Library on Stamford Road, 1986. Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore (Media - Image no. 19980006082 - 0076).

Three years later, in 1996, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong highlighted that while the number of computers per capita was often used to measure development, another equally important indicator to pay attention to was the number of books that the average person reads per year. He noted that the 1993 National Reading Survey reported that Singaporeans read 8.3 books annually, significantly behind Japan’s 18 books and America’s 25 books per person. “Becoming a developed country,” Lee said, “means balancing economic growth with cultural and social achievements.” He observed that “Singapore has some distance to go to catch up”.⁴⁰

The 1993 National Reading Survey coincided with the report by the Library 2000 Review Committee in 1994. The committee had been convened in 1992 to map out the transformation of library services to enhance Singapore’s learning capacity and competitive edge. Among its key recommendations were establishing the National Library Board as a new statutory board and creating a tiered library network to serve diverse information needs as the country positioned itself to become a knowledge-based economy in the new millennium.⁴¹

Read On, Singapore

Since independence, nurturing the habit of reading has been viewed as a national priority, one whose goals have evolved in tandem with Singapore’s development – from being vital to national survival in the 1960s and 1970s to enabling first-world aspirations in the 1980s and 1990s. Reading ability undergirded the ideal of the Singapore citizen-worker: a highly educated individual, fluent in both English and their mother tongue, who embraces lifelong learning to seize opportunities in a fast-changing global economy. Reading surveys played a crucial role in this journey, quantifying habits and highlighting concerns that mobilised multiple stakeholders in building a reading culture.

Today, reading competes with a dizzying array of digital distractions. However, its fundamental importance endures. As reading advocate and library pioneer Hedwig Anuar observed: “The death of reading has been forecast many a time with the advent of radio, television and the computer. But regardless of the newer forms of media, the future knowledge society or information society will ultimately depend on the ability to read, and to read with intelligence and discrimination.”⁴² Her remarks, written over 30 years ago, still resonate today.

About the Author
Janice Loo is a Senior Librarian with the National Library Singapore. Her responsibilities include collection management and content development as well as research and reference assistance on topics relating to Singapore and Southeast Asia.