Thank you for your comment and analysis! It’s a stunning reminder to Keep It Simple, Stupid. I will include your POV in my email to my Head of Department - her pay scale is higher haha.

I teach in the weakest-progress school in Singapore - teens who have failed their Pri Sch Leaving Exam. I wonder if they will take to reading in the first place if their teachers don’t make a concerted effort to create the conditions for reading.