The Premier’s Reading Challenge will this year celebrate its 20th anniversary with South Australian children reading more than 27 million books over the 20 years.

The program was launched in 2004 to encourage students to read more and improve literacy levels.

Since its inception, four South Australian Premiers have been involved with the Premier’s Reading Challenge: Mike Rann, Jay Weatherill, Steven Marshall and Peter Malinauskas.

To commemorate the milestone, a short video was made, featuring the four Premiers, where they congratulated the Challenge for reaching 20 years and shared a positive message about the benefits of reading.

Each year, the program asks students to read 12 books between week one in Term 1 and week seven in Term 3, but this year those who wish to push themselves further will be encouraged to read 20 books as part of the 20-book Challenge.

The program, which is free of charge, is not a competition between students but a personal challenge in which individual students obtain a certificate (first year), a medal (second to seventh year), and a ‘Hall of Fame Reader for Life award’ (eighth year onwards) if they complete the challenge.

In 2023, 121,832 students from 694 South Australian public, independent schools and home schools took part in the Premier’s Reading Challenge with 2,312,827 students taking part since it launched.