What do Dolly Parton, PISA scores and Switched-on Kids have in common?
9 to 5. Jolene. I Will Always Love You. And more than 3,000 songs written over an extraordinary career.
With Dolly Parton’s passing recently, we lost an incredible creative force. But there is another part of Dolly’s legacy that deserves just as much attention - particularly from those of us who care about children.
In 1995, she established Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, inspired in part by her father’s struggles with literacy.
The idea was beautifully simple: give children books.
Every month, enrolled children from birth to five receive their own high-quality, age-appropriate book, completely free to the family. The program now operates internationally, including here in Australia.
And it appears to have done more than simply fill bookshelves.
Recent international research involving more than 86,000 families found that children participating in the Imagination Library were read to more frequently and demonstrated stronger measures of emerging literacy, including vocabulary and phonological awareness. Australian children enrolled in the program were reportedly nine times more likely to be read to four or more days a week than children not yet receiving the books.
That matters!
Long before a child learns to formally read, they are learning to listen, communicate, recognise sounds, follow a story, sit with another human being, imagine something that isn’t physically in front of them and make meaning from language.
All from something as simple as:
“Shall we read a book?”
Are our children falling behind?
Which brings me to some less cheerful reading.
The latest PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results were released on 8 September 2026, measuring the school performance of 15-year-olds around the world.
Australia still performs above the OECD average in science, mathematics and reading, so this isn’t a story of educational catastrophe. But the trend deserves our attention.
In 2025, Australian reading and mathematics results fell again and are now the lowest ever recorded for Australia in PISA. Science has remained comparatively stable. In reading, 77% of Australian students reached the basic proficiency benchmark, compared with 69% across the OECD, but our long-term trajectory is heading in the wrong direction.
So, what has happened?
COVID certainly played a role, but the decline began long before COVID. There is unlikely to be one simple explanation. Teaching methods, attendance, socioeconomic factors, family life, sleep, motivation and educational policy all belong in the conversation.
And then, of course, there are screens.
Before anyone throws their iPad out the window, digital technology itself isn’t inherently bad for learning. It is about how much, how often and how it is used.
OECD data found that around 30% of students reported being distracted by digital devices during most or every mathematics lesson. Interestingly, moderate use of technology for genuine learning can be associated with better performance, while excessive and recreational use at school is associated with poorer outcomes.
Some countries have started responding.
Denmark has recommended mobile-free schools, putting computers and tablets away when they aren’t specifically needed, and creating a better balance between digital and analogue learning. The Danish government has also invested heavily in physical books as part of a strategy to reduce screen-based teaching. Norway has similarly introduced national recommendations restricting mobile phones in schools; by 2024, 96% of Norwegian primary and lower-secondary schools reported restrictions.
Books. Movement. Conversation. Play. Curiosity. Human connection.
Creating a healthy, capable, curious and engaged human being is not just about books and school.
A child’s development is an extraordinary interplay between moving, exploring, communicating, creating, eating, sleeping, connecting, regulating, falling over, getting back up and discovering how their body and their world work.
And that is exactly what Switched-on Kids has always been about.
When I first developed Switched-on Kids in 2006, that broader view of the child was at the heart of it. Twenty years later, that hasn't changed.
What has changed is the program itself. Over the years, I've updated it, questioned things, discarded things, added new research, refined assessments and adjustments, and incorporated areas we simply weren't talking about 20 years ago.
But the fundamental idea remains the same:
Look at the whole child.
Not simply the symptom that brought them through the door.
Because understanding children's development means looking beyond their physical function. Their ability to learn, communicate and engage with the world is influenced by a complex interaction of physical, cognitive, emotional and environmental factors.
And while we may not be responsible for teaching children to read, we are in a wonderful position to remind parents just how important those early experiences with books and language can be.
Dolly Parton recognised that 30 years ago. And with reading skills declining, perhaps her message is more relevant than ever.
