peter
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Matabeleland South Bureau
THE Edward Ndlovu Memorial Trust has intensified distribution of literature in schools with Selonga Primary School receiving 2 000 books under the Books to Go project as the institution moves to establish micro libraries in all schools in Gwanda District.
Books to Go is a new project being implemented by the trust through its library Edward Ndlovu Library and is funded by Book Aid International. The district has 111 primary schools and 36 secondary schools. Edward Ndlovu Memorial Trust director, Mr Mike Moyo said the organisation has established micro libraries in 75 primary and secondary schools in Gwanda District.
He said they were also supporting nine secondary schools in the district with books. Their target is to provide all primary and secondary schools in the district with literature. Mr Moyo said they were set to establish cluster libraries in the district.
“Under the Books to Go project we have provided Selonga Primary School with an assortment of 2 000 books. We have since delivered the books to the school. We also gave them 600 books under the Books Box programme.
The books also go with satchels which learners can use to carry the books home during school holidays and over weekends. Books to Go is a new project funded by Book Aid International.
“For now, we are training staff members from the school in library management, book lending and book coding. These staff members that we trained here will go on to train the rest of the staff members and SDC members so that the programme becomes effective. We have also given the school a steel cabinet which will house all the books.
We have emphasised to the school that they have to closely follow up these books in order to sustain the project,” he said.
Mr Moyo said the staff members were now going to sort and code the books before they start lending them to pupils. He said they would conduct monitoring exercises within the community and school to see whether pupils were fully benefiting from the books and to determine how the programme was progressing.
He said in the past some schools have received books but they have remained unused. Mr Moyo said an assessment they conducted had shown that some learners in rural schools complete their Grade Seven not knowing how to speak English, read or write.
“As an organisation we want to reduce illiteracy levels to tolerable levels. In Gwanda there are some learners who complete their Grade Seven not knowing how to read, write or speak English. Each child must have access to these books.
We are trying to close that gap which exists between the urban and rural learners in terms of literacy. We will emphasise on the issue of book handling so that even when the children take the books home they serve their purpose,” he said.
Mr Moyo said one of the trust’s core objectives was to facilitate community development through education and one way of doing this was by providing information and literature through libraries. He said their focus was to provide current, relevant and age-appropriate books which could edify people. — @DubeMatutu
Online Reporter