National Book Week: Why the Philippines has a reading crisis

Why do so many Filipino children struggle to read and what does that say about the state of education and literacy in the Philippines today?

In this National Book Week episode, we revisit our conversation with Gillian Reyes of the National Book Development Board (NBDB) to unpack the country’s growing reading crisis. From lack of access and rising book costs to home environments and reading culture, this episode explores the real reasons why fewer Filipinos are reading for pleasure — and how this impacts literacy, learning, and national development.

We also dive into how initiatives like Book Nooks, the Philippine Book Festival, and local language translations are working to rebuild a culture of reading in communities across the country.

This episode rerun was produced by Anthony Tobias and engineered by Jem Bunao. Jaemark Tordecilla is our editor-at-large.

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