here was a time when a school library was understood almost instinctively as infrastructure and inputs. A quiet room lined with books in cupboards, often locked, where children would be chaperoned to pick a book and read under strict vigilance. Today, that relationship with books and libraries is becoming hard to sustain.

An estimated 80 percent of children in Pakistan suffer from learning poverty, as highlighted by the Pakistan Learning Poverty Brief (April 2024) of the World Bank. According to the brief, children are not becoming proficient readers by the end of primary school. More than 23 million remain out of school (HIES 2025). The idea of a library, a room organised for the pleasure of reading and discovery, is imperative. What was once simply a quiet room full of books in inaccessible, supervised cupboards now needs to become something more deliberate: a genuine accelerator of foundational learning.

This conclusion was drawn at a recent dialogue held for International Literacy Day 2026 at the Quaid-i-Azam Heritage Library. The dialogue was framed by the findings of an independent evaluation comparing 20 government schools with libraries against 20 comparison schools in the Punjab. Among the 1,179 Grade 3 and Grade 5 students assessed, the results were stark. An estimated 94 percent of children in schools with libraries had borrowed books to read at home, against just six percent in comparison schools without proper libraries. 80 percent chose their own books during school hours, against 20 percent elsewhere. 72 percent had read a book purely for enjoyment in the previous five days — more than double the 28 percent in comparison schools — and were markedly better able to recall what they had read. Over 85 percent of these schools with libraries were still running scheduled library periods more than a year after direct project support ended. Nearly all had kept up basic systems — book registers, inventory tracking, reading logs — without being told to. Teachers and headteachers owned the libraries as an incentive for children to enjoy after completing other tasks.

The evaluation also found that impact strengthens with time. Grade 5 students, who had some years of exposure to the libraries, showed significantly stronger reading habits than comparison peers, while Grade 3 students, only recently introduced, had yet to catch up. Only half of these schools had anyone formally responsible for the library, usually a teacher carrying it as an extra duty rather than a recognised post.

A library, on its own, is not an achievement; what matters is whether children are given enough time, over enough years, with sustained dignity to turn access into habits and whether the person, the institution and resources responsible for keeping that library alive are built into the system, and not left to goodwill.

The panel of eminent educators and library champions moved beyond the numbers to what a sustainable reading culture actually requires. The Programme Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PMIU-PESRP) director, highlighted thousands of library corners established in government schools with well-illustrated books under various projects; they now need collaboration and good practices beyond single organisational models, as PECTAA senior director reinforced. A strong voice from IBBY’s global president and founder, Alif Laila Book Bus Society described that the relationship with books begins even earlier than a library visit. When parents are seen reading in front of their children, it plants the love of books long before children ever pick one up themselves. The director at the Nawaz Sharif Centre for Excellence spoke to a different dimension: the importance of treating children with respect and dignity in these spaces. A voice from Deaf Reach raised a question rarely asked in these conversations: what does ‘access to a library’ mean for a differently-abled child? How much inclusion still needs to go into books in mother-tongue and Pakistan Sign Language? The representative from the Chughtai Library highlighted the challenge of children being able to read at the right level even when in Grade 4 or 5; here public libraries are safe spaces encouraging self-paced reading. The moderator from ITA drew upon the rich story-telling sessions, independent reading habits and book borrowing, with trust becoming the norm in interactive open libraries in government schools, with all teachers trained in library management.

The discussion returned repeatedly to a single idea: a library, on its own, is not an achievement; what matters is whether children are given enough time, over enough years, with sustained dignity to turn access into habits and whether the person, the institution and resources responsible for keeping that library alive are built into the system, and not left to goodwill.

Moving forward the recommendations were loud and clear.

a) sustained exposure matters more than early enthusiasm

b) the difference between Grade 3 and Grade 5 reading outcomes suggests libraries need to reach children continuously from the earliest primary grades, not just for a year or two

c) Library management needs to be a formally recognised skills set, not a random addition to a teacher’s existing workload

d) as governments expand library access across the Punjab and Pakistan, quality cannot be assumed to follow automatically from infrastructure; it requires deliberate investment in training, in book selection, quality and in monitoring that keeps routines from hardening into mere compliance

e) what happens next will determine whether it becomes a living policy reform or simply a well-documented one-off project and finally

f) the urgency to expand libraries in community spaces reinforced.

The findings that triggered the rich discussion came from a mixed-method evaluation of the Pakistan Literacy Project, implemented by Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi and Room to Read in 2020, which established 70 libraries across government schools in the Punjab in partnership with the Punjab School Education Department.

Baela Jamil, the ITA CEO, can be reached at [email protected]

Talha Iftikhar, the senior manager at ITA can be reached at [email protected]