Ian Rankin, the bestselling crime writer, is to head a Labour commission into declining standards of literacy in Scottish schools.

The Edinburgh-based creator of Detective Inspector John Rebus will investigate why thousands of pupils are failing to achieve minimum standards in reading and writing.

Almost half of 14-year-olds in Scottish schools fail to meet basic standards in writing and Scotland has slumped from 14th to 26th place in an international ranking of reading achievement, behind Latvia and Lithuania.

Rankin, who has previously criticised Labour for not doing enough to improve childhood literacy, was asked to head the commission by Rhona Brankin, the Scottish party’s shadow education minister.

In his first interview about the review, which aims to provide fresh thinking on how to raise standards, Rankin said parents were not doing enough to encourage reading and writing at home, and were often happy to allow their children to sit in front of the television.

“I think the basics are being taught in school, but are kids arriving at school aged four or five as able as they were a generation ago?

“Are parents doing their bit at a young age to get the kids away from the television and to get them interested in the written word and the picture book as an adventure?

“I’m a parent myself, I know what it’s like. It’s easy to persuade yourself that you’re very busy and the easiest option is to plant your kids in front of either a computer game or the telly. But it’s a hell of a lot more fun and a hell of a lot more satisfying if it’s interactive — if it’s you and your child sharing the adventure — and the way to do that is through stories.”

Earlier this month, Scotland’s chief examiners called for handwriting classes to be introduced because many pupils no longer know how to write longhand. The examiners, who were unable to mark a large number of Higher English papers because of illegible handwriting, have raised concerns that teenagers, brought up using e-mail and texting, have lost the ability to work with a pen and paper.

However, Rankin played down concerns that text messaging was undermining standards.

“People who are text messaging aren’t using the correct grammar and correct spelling, but they are communicating through words,” he added.

“I remember the big stushie in the Seventies with Slade because they misspelt the titles of their songs, like Cum on Feel the Noize, and adults were up in arms saying this meant children were going to lose the ability to spell.

“The English language is flexible and it has changed constantly throughout history and it could be that it’s just changing again. It doesn’t mean it’s necessarily getting worse.”

Last December, Rankin was among more than 500 leading authors, including Joanna Trollope, Kate Mosse, Jackie Collins and Nick Hornby, who wrote to Gordon Brown urging him to confront childhood illiteracy and teach pupils to read for an hour a day.

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