The country paying its citizens to read

While waiting for the train, at the neighborhood café, or even during a break at work, a small Southeast Asian nation is trying to revive an increasingly rare habit among its citizens: reading.

Singapore this month launched an innovative five-year national campaign to cultivate reading habits, with incentives that include small rewards for citizens who log their reading minutes on a government website.

Officials believe that with a “gamification” strategy — using a points system to track reading in exchange for a small reward — they may be able to restore a habit largely replaced by “doomscrolling,” with whatever intellectual damage that entails.

“While short-form content helps us stay informed, reading long-form texts boosts focus, critical thinking and imagination,” said Melissa Tam, chief executive of the National Library Board, in a statement.

“Ultimately, we want to see a population of readers who are curious, thoughtful, critical and equipped to navigate an increasingly complex world.”

Naturally, the program won’t make book lovers rich: it takes 50 days of reading sessions to earn 1 Singapore dollar (the equivalent of $0.80). A session lasting 15 minutes or more earns readers 20 virtual coins, and readers must accumulate 1,000 coins to receive the dollar payout. Only one session can be logged per day.

The unique program comes amid a digital onslaught, where screens dominate daily life, human attention spans are shrinking and the reading habit is in full decline. Educators are struggling to combat “brain rot” — a noticeable decline in cognitive abilities attributed to excessive consumption of superficial online content — as well as “doomscrolling.”

The results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for 15-year-olds, published last week, reveal a general decline in student achievement, even in countries where their performance remains relatively better than elsewhere.

Turning reading into a game and cultivating it as a habit is at the heart of Singapore’s initiative, said Loh Chin Ee of the country’s National Institute of Education.

“For someone who reads a lot, 15 minutes may seem like a lot, but I think it’s a good and ideal amount of time,” Law told CNN.

While Singapore continues to stand out globally for reading outcomes, there are concerns that students are losing interest in reading as they begin preparing for more high-stakes exams while advancing through the grades.

The “earn while you read” initiative is in a pilot phase through the end of the year, “with new features and improvements to be added based on feedback.”