For working parents, it is a constant struggle to find time for the family. Often this is compressed into a few rushed minutes before work and maybe an hour afterwards. That hour is organised with military precision: get homework done; read the school’s current choice of storybook; go to bed. With many parents working longer hours, family dinners being missed, and one in seven parents struggling to read to their children on a daily basis, is this lack of home-time learning leading to increased illiteracy in the UK?

A new report by the World Literacy Foundation finds that illiteracy in the UK has claimed a staggering six million people, affecting one in five adults and costing the UK economy more than £81bn a year in lost earnings and increased welfare spending. World Literacy Summit Committee chairman Dr Anthony Cree said: “If a person does not have the solid base of literacy and numeracy skills that so many of us take for granted, their opportunities in life are more limited. Many higher-paying job and training opportunities are closed to them, they are more likely to turn to a life of crime.”

With one in five youths leaving school without even a basic grasp of reading, writing and arithmetic, this talent crisis isn’t going away.

So why are school leavers so ill educated? In the past year, 400,000 children were persistently missing about one month of school. On one hand, working parents can’t monitor their children when they are at school, in loco parentis. On the other hand, schools have an insurmountable job, dealing with reduced budgets and increasing class sizes. It’s not surprising that children with learning difficulties or low motivation are slipping through the cracks. And it’s no wonder that UK pupils have slipped from the world’s seventh best in reading to an embarrassing 25th.

What we need are more positive role models – the chic geek if you like.

Why don’t children want to be taught? Children want to have fun and be popular. They are bombarded with TV shows showing education in a negative light – such as American teen movies where the jocks are popular and get the girl, while the geeks are portrayed as wimpy, reclusive misfits. In the UK, we have a number of role models that seemingly lack any academic or emotional intelligence, representing a get-rich-quick route. What we need are more positive role models – the chic geek if you like. The US series Glee bucks the trend; could this mean the tide is turning on the jocks or TOWIE’s of the world?

Until the rise of the geeks occurs, though, it will be up to parents to fill in the educational gaps and inspire our children from a young age. Nine out of 10 parents want to spend more time helping their child develop their literacy skills. Something as simple as reading a bedtime story every night can make such a huge difference to a child’s development. They will sleep better; it will strengthen morals and values and long-term bonds between parent and child; it will help them develop their logical reasoning skills and become better students. Those who have a rich vocabulary at an early age become good students and better communicators: this lowers the stress of education and establishes the idea of routine, which is necessary to manage busy school years.

In our house no bedtime hour is complete without a bedtime story. After her goodnight kiss my daughter can often be heard tiptoeing across her room to get more books to read by herself. Then later, when she falls asleep, there will be a crash as the books fall off her bed, as she dreams of princesses in magical lands.