Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said plummeting reading among kids could have an 'impact on our security as a country' as hostile forces become increasingly sophisticated
10:24, 02 Jan 2026
Children could be more vulnerable to Russian disinformation due to a decline in reading, Bridget Phillipson has warned.
The Education Secretary said plummeting reading among youngsters could have an “impact on our security as a country” as hostile forces are becoming increasingly sophisticated on social media.
She said the UK needs to raise a “generation of critical thinkers” as state actors are pretending to be legitimate news sources and spreading disinformation across the internet.
Writing in the Telegraph, Ms Phillipson said: “A decline of literacy, a dwindling of reading comprehension could even have an impact on our security as a country. As we’ve heard in recent months, and in December from the new head of MI6, the threat from Russia and from other foreign state actors is growing.
READ MORE: 11 major school changes that parents need to know in curriculum shake-up“And a dark new frontier is the disinformation spreading across social media and the wider internet. These threats are more sophisticated than ever, with higher production values designed to appear like legitimate news sources.
“To respond, we need a generation of critical thinkers. We need a generation of problem solvers, equipped to dissect what lands in front of them, to value the truth and to reject the easy temptations of the online world. In short, we need a generation of readers.”
Ms Phillipson’s Department for Education has teamed up with the National Literacy Trust for a UK-wide campaign to make 2026 the national year of reading.
The initiative will aim to improve reading rates, which according to the trust have dropped from around a half of kids enjoying reading 20 years ago to just a third now.
The Education Secretary last year announced plans to introduce a new Year 8 reading test. But she has faced pushback from teaching unions, including the National Education Union’s (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede, who has warned that “more mandatory tests are not the answer”.
The UK is facing a tsunami of disinformation and propaganda aimed at destabilising society and trust in government institutions. The new head of MI6 Blaise Metreweli last month said the “front line is everywhere” as she promised to tackle new and emerging threats to the UK and its allies.
She vowed to ensure her teams of spies operating globally are more fluent in technology than ever before.
Referring to the computer programming system “Python”, she said: “Mastery of technology must infuse everything we do. Not just in our labs, but in the field, in our tradecraft, and even more importantly, in the mindset of every officer.
“We must be as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources, as fluent in Python as we are in multiple languages."