- Astiba Kebong’o argues that digital convenience should not replace sustained reading and independent thinking.
- She says learners need stronger reading habits alongside responsible use of smartphones, search engines and AI.
- Kebong’o calls on parents, teachers, schools and government to deliberately rebuild Kenya’s reading culture.
There was a time when receiving a book as a gift could make a child’s day.
I remember the excitement of opening a new storybook and wondering where its characters would take us. We started with simple stories, graduated to novels and gradually developed our own reading tastes. Some of us competed to finish a novel first, then gathered to retell the story, debate the characters and share what we had learnt.
Novels by writers such as James Hadley Chase were particularly popular among many young readers of my generation. We read, discussed and even competed over who would finish first.
Today, I sometimes ask myself: If you gave a child a book and a smartphone as gifts, which one would they choose?
It is a simple question, but it speaks to a much bigger concern about our changing reading culture.
We live in an age where information is available at the touch of a button. A learner no longer needs to spend hours searching through an encyclopaedia or walking to a library to find a particular fact. Google, YouTube, digital libraries and artificial intelligence can provide information within seconds.
This is progress, and we should embrace it.
But perhaps we need to ask ourselves a difficult question: Are we becoming better informed without necessarily becoming better readers?
When information becomes too easy
The problem is not that our children use technology. Technology is now part of education and everyday life. The concern arises when instant access to information begins to replace the patience required to read, investigate, compare sources and think independently.
A learner may search for the summary of a novel instead of reading the novel. Another may Google an assignment, copy the first answer that appears and submit it without checking whether the information is accurate.
Artificial intelligence has made this even easier.
A learner can now ask a tool to summarise a book, answer questions or write an essay within seconds. Used responsibly, this can support learning. Used carelessly, it can deprive learners of the very struggle through which understanding develops.
There is a difference between accessing information and acquiring knowledge.
Information is everywhere. Knowledge requires engagement.
Research led by psychologist Jean Twenge found a substantial decline in recreational reading among American adolescents as digital-media use increased. The study, based on large-scale surveys spanning several decades, found that daily reading of books, magazines and newspapers for pleasure had fallen sharply among teenagers.
We should not simply transplant American findings into Kenya. Our circumstances are different. But the trend should make us pause and reflect on what is happening to reading in our own homes and schools.
We need to protect deep reading
Scholar Maryanne Wolf has written extensively about the reading brain in the digital age. Her concern is not that technology is inherently bad, but that rapid consumption of digital information can compete with the sustained attention associated with deep reading, reflection, empathy and critical thinking. She argues for developing readers who can navigate both print and digital environments without losing the capacity to read deeply.
That is precisely the balance we should seek.
We do not need to choose between books and technology. We need children who can use both wisely.
A search engine should help a learner find information. It should not replace the intellectual journey of reading, questioning, comparing evidence and arriving at an informed conclusion.
Even our everyday practices have changed.
Think about church. There was a time when worshippers carried their Bibles, underlined passages and knew where to find particular verses. Today, many simply open an application on their phones and search for the verse.
There is nothing wrong with using a Bible application. Technology has made Scripture more accessible.
But there is a difference between knowing how to search for a verse and knowing the Scriptures well enough to understand, remember and apply them.
The same principle applies to education.
We should not confuse convenience with mastery.
Are bookshops still part of our reading culture?
I sometimes look at bookshops and wonder whether we still browse for books simply because we want to read.
During school-opening seasons, there is certainly a rush for textbooks and other required materials. But outside that period, how many families walk into a bookshop looking for an interesting novel, biography, collection of stories or other book for pleasure?
How many parents buy a book for a child without being instructed to do so by the school?
How many learners can name an author whose work they voluntarily follow?
These questions matter because reading should not be something children do only because an examination requires it.
We need to recover reading as a habit and a pleasure.
As an educator, one of my concerns is seeing learners become increasingly dependent on teachers and guidebooks when studying literature.
The teacher explains the novel. The learner memorises the explanation.
The guidebook describes a character. The learner memorises the character traits.
An examination question is asked. The learner reproduces what was previously provided.
Yet literature is life.
A novel allows a learner to encounter different personalities, cultures, conflicts, choices and consequences. Poetry develops sensitivity to language and emotion. Drama enables learners to examine human behaviour and relationships.
Literature asks us difficult questions: Why did this character behave this way? What would I have done differently? What does this story tell us about society? Do I agree with the writer?
Those are not merely examination questions. They are life questions.
This is why literature and wider reading remain important even as curriculum structures and subject choices evolve.
Reading develops communication. It exposes learners to new ideas. It strengthens vocabulary. It encourages imagination and critical thinking. It can also help learners understand people whose experiences are different from their own.
A learner who reads widely is not simply collecting stories.
They are expanding their mental world.
Kenya has already demonstrated what deliberate investment in reading can achieve.
The Tusome Early Grade Reading programme focused on improving Kiswahili and English reading outcomes among learners in Grades 1–3 through structured instruction, learning materials and teacher support. USAID records show that Tusome ran from 2014 to 2021 and targeted early-grade reading outcomes nationally.
That experience offers an important lesson: reading culture does not develop by accident.
We must nurture it.
A child who learns to enjoy stories early is more likely to approach books with curiosity rather than fear. The foundation laid in the early years must then be strengthened as the learner progresses through school.
Reading should not begin with examination preparation and end with the final paper.
Reading culture begins at home.
Parents do not need to build expensive private libraries. A few carefully selected books can make a difference.
Families can establish a simple reading routine, perhaps 20 or 30 minutes in the evening when phones and other distractions are put aside.
Children can be allowed to choose some of their own books. A child interested in football, animals, adventure, history, technology or fashion can be introduced to books around those interests.
Parents can ask simple questions: What are you reading? What did you enjoy? Which character did you like? What did the story teach you?
And parents should read too.
Children observe what adults do more closely than what we tell them to do.
We should also consider giving books as gifts.
A book should not be associated only with homework, punishment and examinations.
It can be a friend, a source of entertainment and a doorway into another world.
Teachers can also change a learner’s relationship with books.
Language departments can establish vibrant reading clubs where learners recommend books to one another, read aloud, debate characters, review stories, perform drama and discuss current affairs.
Schools can set aside regular time for independent reading and organise book-review competitions, storytelling sessions, poetry performances, reading challenges and book-exchange programmes.
A simple Book of the Month initiative can expose learners to titles they might never have encountered.
Schools can also create classroom libraries so that books are within easy reach.
A school library should not be a room where books are locked away and occasionally inspected.
It should be a living centre of learning.
School administrators should work with language departments and boards of management to gradually expand collections of age-appropriate fiction, biographies, newspapers, magazines, reference books and other supplementary reading materials.
Schools should also take advantage of quality digital resources. The objective should not be to replace physical books with screens, but to give learners access to both print and credible digital resources.
Reading materials should not be treated as a luxury.
For some children, the school library may be the only place where they can access a variety of books.
The Ministry of Education and KICD also have an important role in strengthening the ecosystem around reading.
Beyond prescribed textbooks, schools need access to affordable and appropriate supplementary reading materials.
Investment in school libraries, graded readers, local literature, children’s fiction, Kiswahili and indigenous-language materials, reference resources and carefully selected digital content can help broaden learners’ exposure to reading.
Singapore offers an interesting lesson
The challenge is not uniquely Kenyan.
Singapore launched ReadSG in September 2026 as a national movement intended to encourage reading as a lifelong habit and shared culture. The programme is part of the National Library Board’s efforts to promote sustained reading in a highly digital society.
Singapore’s example is instructive, not because Kenya should copy it wholesale, but because it demonstrates that even highly digital societies recognise the need to deliberately protect reading.
Perhaps Kenya needs its own renewed national conversation about reading.
We should not tell children simply to “put away your phones”.
Instead, we should teach them how to use technology to discover and deepen their reading.
A learner can watch an online review of a novel, then borrow the book from the library.
A teacher can use a digital platform to recommend books.
A school can create a reading group on a supervised digital platform where learners discuss what they are reading.
Parents can help children find credible online libraries and educational resources.
The screen does not have to be the enemy of the book. It can become the bridge to the book.
We must raise thinkers, not just searchers
The greatest concern is not that our children are using Google.
It is that they may eventually lose the patience to investigate.
It is not that they use phones.
It is that the phone may become their first response to every question.
It is not that AI can provide answers.
It is that learners may stop struggling productively with difficult questions themselves.
We must raise children who can search, but also read; Google, but also question; use AI, but also think.
The solution is not to return to a world without technology. That world is gone.
Our responsibility is to prepare children for a digital future without sacrificing the intellectual habits that will help them navigate that future.
Let the smartphone remain a tool.
Let the internet remain a gateway.
Let artificial intelligence become an assistant, not a substitute for thought.
And let us put books back where they belong: within reach of every child, in our homes, classrooms and libraries.
Because a child who reads does more than pass an examination.
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A child who reads learns to think, question, imagine, communicate and understand the world.
By Astiba Kebong’o
Astiba Kebong’o is an educator.
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