Southeast Asia’s falling literacy: can cash and gamification fix it?

Singaporean Najwa Alhabshi remembers spending her teenage years poring over literary classics such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and George Orwell’s 1984. The books introduced her to ideologies, philosophies and the American dream while expanding her vocabulary.

But as work commitments grew, the pages of her books started yellowing. Finding time to read became harder, and her smartphone screen eventually took over. “I think I just fell out of reading,” the 35-year-old tutor said. “Life got in the way – it was work, a lack of time, and eventually, the phone screen.”

Across Southeast Asia, governments are stepping in to get people reading again. With screens reshaping how people consume information, concerns are growing over falling literacy rates, shortened attention spans and declining critical-thinking capabilities.

Singapore is one of those taking action. Earlier this month, the city state launched an initiative that pays citizens to read.