The relevance of the study is determined by the declining interest of schoolchildren in reading amid the digitalisation of society, the competition between visual and textual information, and the specific features of Kyrgyzstan’s multilingual and multicultural educational environment. The aim of the study was to identify current challenges in developing schoolchildren’s reading culture and to substantiate pedagogical guidelines for its development in the educational process. The study utilised an analytical method, a survey of 120 students in grades 7-9 in Bishkek, and pedagogical modelling methods: the development of a structural model of schoolchildren’s reading culture and a system of pedagogical guidelines aimed at developing it in a multilingual educational environment. It was established that the key challenges in Kyrgyzstan remain digitalisation, clip thinking, declining reading motivation, competition from visual content, and difficulties with reading in a multilingual environment. Survey results revealed that only 27% of students read regularly, while only 31% are able to comprehend the problems of the text. The study revealed the predominance of a functional-formal level of reading, with insufficient development of the value-based and reflective components. The pedagogical guidelines substantiated include the development of intrinsic reading motivation, work with complete literary texts, the formation of cross-cultural competence, and the use of analytical-interpretative reading. Comparative reading of works of Kyrgyz and world literature, text interpretation based on cultural context, and dialogic discussion were identified as effective mechanisms. The implementation of the proposed pedagogical guidelines contributed to the transition from the formal assimilation of information to meaningful reading and to the formation of a stable reading culture among schoolchildren in the multicultural educational environment of Kyrgyzstan. The practical significance of the study lay in the possibility of applying the developed guidelines and model of reading activity in lesson planning, curriculum development, and teacher professional development