School library cuts are damaging for kids, says Neil Bibby

It is well known that the skills in comprehension and attention brought by reading sets children up to be engaged and capable adults.

And as a cultural activity, reading can also be immensely rewarding. Children with a love of reading can explore countless worlds and meet as many characters. Having developed this love in childhood, they can go on to experience some of Scotland’s greatest cultural works, such as the novels of Sir Walter Scott or the poems of Dame Carol Ann Duffy.

We should champion the potential for personal fulfilment offered by reading. And many do.

World Book Day is a great example of this. On World Book Day, which this year was on March 7, children across Scotland are given tokens with which to buy books, and events are held in schools across the country to celebrate the wonder of reading.

Charities like World Book Day understand the value of reading and are doing great work to celebrate it. The opportunities they provide children and young people to enjoy literature are invaluable.

Unfortunately, however, opportunities like these are increasingly hard to come by.

Despite its clear value, both for readers themselves and for Scotland’s cultural output, the literary sector in Scotland has repeatedly fallen victim to Scottish Government cuts in recent years.

A particularly shocking example of this is the government’s remorseless meddling with the budget of Creative Scotland, the public body responsible for supporting the arts and culture sector in Scotland.

Apparently considering it a piggy bank, the Scottish Government has a history of simply taking money from the body whenever it likes. And now Creative Scotland can’t fund the Aye Write literary festival in Glasgow this year.

The government has also repeatedly cut local council budgets over the years, which in turn means cuts to valuable local services. And all too often, it’s local cultural services that take the hit.

North Ayrshire Council’s recent proposal to cut the area’s school librarians is an example of a depressingly common trend in areas across the country. In an effort to cut costs, the council plans to reduce the number of librarians across North Ayrshire secondary schools from five to two.

Parents and pupils in the impacted schools rightly object to the plan: with no one to run them, their libraries will effectively cease. A petition to save the libraries has already received over 800 signatures.

Cuts to cultural services will undoubtedly make it more difficult for children across Scotland to engage with literature. But they are likely to disproportionately affect children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

This is particularly true of North Ayrshire. This area has already seen the government cut back funding for the Scottish Attainment Challenge, which aimed to help disadvantaged children at school. Now, local government cuts could mean the same children will find it harder than their peers to access books.

The value of literature is clear, and children and young people should be encouraged to engage with it. The Scottish Government, however, appears not to understand this.

The government must do more to ensure that children have equal access to literature in North Ayrshire and beyond. If it doesn’t, then perhaps it’s time to turn the page on the SNP.