Early exposure to reading, intervention programs for struggling students and investment in school libraries and extra-curricular reading programs have been flagged as key approaches to tackle the dip in year nine reading skills - especially among male students - seen in the latest NAPLAN results.

Test results showed the percentage of year nine boys unable to reach the national reading minimum standard had gone up to 13.5 per cent from 8.5 per cent in 2008.

Emmanuel College head of English and literacy Catherine Ryan said she had noticed reading engagement levels dwindle in middle teenage years which she attributed to the increase in competing interests among students.

"In terms of challenges, we're up against kids who have got social media, they play games, they have jobs after school, they played sport," she said.

"They seem to have no time to read."

Ms Ryan said the school had been increasing the amount of reading time in the classroom to account for the lack of reading done at home.

"We're finding time for them at school to read because one of the things that we found was that if they're not reading at school, they're not reading at all," she said.

"If the only reading that they do is at school, then we need to find the opportunities for them to do that."

She said there was a noticeable disparity between male and female students with males finding less interest in literary reading material and needing broader reading texts to engage them.

"At times it is a matter of getting boys to read graphic novels or sports biographies," she said.

"It's great once they find something that they like, but they're very difficult to engage initially."

Ms Ryan said she also found involvement of student feedback in her curriculum planning and parent collaboration had increased reading engagement.

"We surveyed students as to what they thought of the text that they were studying, and what they would like to study, and then made a number of changes based on that," she said.

"If the parents are engaged in reading, then that is passed onto the child, so that's an approach that we're trying.

"We particularly encourage dads to read to their kids (at a young age), because boys typically are the ones who struggle more so in having the model of a dad reading."

Emmanuel College director of learning Simone Rolfe said the school had made an active effort to target year nine learning with its 9 at RICE program after noticing the disengagement trend at the year level.

The program which is aimed at encouraging students to reflect on their learning and better prepare them for their senior years will have an entire campus on Canterbury Road dedicated to its facilitation in 2024.

"They do those things, look at developing themselves as people, and understanding themselves for what they want to do when they then go into the senior school," she said.

"Year 9's often the year where students disengage. Having something different and actively engaging keeps them on track and sets them up really well."

Library coordinator Margaret Sinnott said it was important to invest in school libraries to make them an attractive space and make it easier for students to access more reading material.

"An investment in a school library is an investment in the students," she said. "We're grateful that the school is investing in the library and trying to grow the space."

Ms Sinnott said using the funding to re-organise how books were grouped had increased students' interest in the school's library.

"You can now go to the shelves and see things like the history section, adventure and animals, sport," she said. "I think having it set up like that has helped a lot."

Emmanuel College learning diversity coordinator Andrea Lane said intervention was particularly important to ensure struggling students were not left behind in reading engagement which she thought had contributed to overall falling literacy levels.

She said she'd like to see more support and funding for intervention programs and tutoring within schools.

"We've been really pleased with what we've been able to do with them," she said.

"I see students before school and after school or during recess and lunch.

"I take them for a screener or some kind of assessment just to see where their strengths and inadequacies are, and see what we can be doing.

"It just means that less students fall through the cracks."

Kip McGrath tutoring company chief commercial officer Scott Hillard also said year nine was a critical year to target reading competency.

"It's kind of your last chance to mitigate any shortfalls because school gets pretty serious after that point," he said.

Mr Hillard said the dip in year nine reading levels seen in the NAPLAN results may be attributed to "compounding effects of students falling behind in prior years".

"What we see is kids are coming to us who are in the year seven, eight and nine level and are substantially behind because they went into high school at a disadvantage and got lost in the mix there," he said.

"What's compounded that has been the interrupted schooling as a result of the COVID restrictions over the last few years."

He said the issue was easily mitigated by going back to basics.

"The single most important thing that parents can do is actually read to their children from birth," he said.

"You find that kids who've got that early exposure to written material and to books, that love of reading is going to take off along with basic literacy skills.

"That will then just continue to service them throughout their life."

Mr Hillard said his approach and process to tackling low reading literacy in his tutoring classes had remained the same as it had been for many years.

"We use the same methods to break down complex reading tasks for students to make it easier for them," he said.

"What has changed significantly is the mode of delivery for that using a mis of digital and paper delivery modes."

He said he thought NAPLAN still tested student skill level in a comprehensive way.

"It's not a perfect test by any means, and I suppose the strongest criticism you could make of it is that it'd be a lot better if the results got out to schools faster, so they could do something meaningful with them," he said.

"I certainly think it's certainly a useful tool at the individual student level."

Mr Hillard said an important focus he had in his classes was also improving confidence in his students.

"What kids are really looking for first and foremost, and parents by proxy, is to build their confidence," he said.

"If their confidence drops, their motivation drops and their ability to engage and learn is really impacted.

"A lot of the work that we do ... is around building that confidence level in children so that they can actually actively engage with stuff that is a bit challenging and a bit unfamiliar to them."

Meanwhile, Deakin University education professor Joanne O'Mara said people had become unnecessarily worried about the decline in reading levels seen in the latest NAPLAN results.

"The general trends are that things are actually going up," she said.

"The kind of difference people are talking about is really minor, so I actually don't think this is significant at all. It is something which has been created as a moral panic."

Ms O'Mara said the issue was not year nines being able to read but their ability to interpret complex literary texts.

"I don't think there's anything intrinsically different with the standards, or the quality of work that young people are producing," she said.

"If you really want to change things, what you need to do is get more equity into a education system.

"I think the way to improve things is to not focus on this kind of testing, and to really focus on creating a culture of reading in schools."

Ms O'Mara said it was also important to note the transition from paper to online testing may have left disadvantaged schools behind which would have contributed to low results.

"They've got to treat every school as though it's got a low level of connectivity," she said. "This can otherwise make testing clunky and slow for schools that don't have fast internet or appropriate equipment."