The reading performance of New Zealand primary school children has dropped from 13th to 24th in the world in an international study.
The Progress in International Reading Study, issued yesterday, involved children aged about 10 in 40 countries.
Russia, Hong Kong and Singapore were the top three countries.
English children's reading performance also fell, from third to 19th.
But despite dropping on the list, New Zealand students have maintained a consistently high standard of reading in the past five years.
Their average reading score was 532, higher than the study's international average of 500.
The average score for New Zealand students in the first study in 2001 was also high, at 529.
New Zealand girls continued to do better than boys in the latest study, following a worldwide trend. Females had an average score of 544 and males an average of 520.
The study takes information from pupils, parents and teachers.
It is done every five years - data for the latest study was gathered last year - to measure literacy and gather information about home and school factors associated with learning to read.
Nearly 2500 New Zealand students from 156 schools were tested in the survey.
