ABSTRACT
Since the late 1980s, national evaluations of pupil’s reading ability have been undertaken annually by the Ministry of Education. Children in France, as in other countries, are frequently thought to spend too much time zapping between television channels or playing computer games instead of reading. A survey of favourite weekend leisure activities among teenagers showed that they rated reading books much lower than listening to music, watching television, seeing their friends, playing sport or reading magazines. While the French Ministry of Education has an obvious interest in reading habits, the Ministry of Culture and Communication and the Ministry of Industry also have particular responsibilities. Within the Ministry the existence of a section called the ’Direction du livre et de la lecture’ illustrates the importance which the French attach to books and reading. The French Ministry of Industry is directly concerned with the economics of book production. By 1997, the book market had fallen behind other sectors of French industry.
