Don’t lock our kids’ library books away

We need to develop this habit of reading books. There needs to be some creativity initiated.

Primary school head teachers in the Northern Division have been reminded not to lock away library reading materials in their rooms.

This was observed by the Minister for Education, Premila Kumar.

During a handing over of library materials at Saint Mary’s Primary School in Labasa on Friday, Ms Kumar revealed that she had seen this happening in some schools.

“You cannot leave this material locked away in your room,” Ms Kumar said.

“These must be used, and you need to monitor the usage of these materials.”

She said statistics showed that there were some children who reached high levels in school but were unable to read and write.

That has been the case for quite some time, not only in Fiji, but the rest of the world.

She said the ministry had put a lot of emphasis on literacy and numeracy and over the years non-government organisations were stepping in to help.

“Here, we have Vision Fiji who has stepped in to assist the ministry and under the ‘Read to Lead’ programme they provide relevant books for our primary school,” the minister said.

New style of school libraries

“We are also changing the way our library services are operating.”

She said the ministry needed to focus more on school libraries.

“Heads of schools are advised to work hand in hand with English teachers, heads of language departments and librarians,” she said.

She highlighted that the library was not a place just to receive relevant materials and pile it up with shelves looking full.

“With lower primary, we need to develop this habit of reading books,” she added.

“Books need to go out with the children so that they can read also at home and come back to school with it.

Teacher’s need to do more

“The teachers should ask what they read and listen and encourage them to write down what they learn.

“If we don’t focus on reading, writing and numbers, then we will be failing in our duties because that becomes the foundation of our children.”

“The library should not be treated as just one room where a librarian is there and children only enter during their library period,” she said.

“There needs to be some creativity initiated so that children love to read books.”