By Frederick Philander WINDHOEK Too many Namibian teachers still consider the presence of school libraries a prerequisite for successful teaching of reading. This is the view of the acting director of the Namibia Library and Archive Services, Elia Manga. He was speaking last week on school library management and the promotion of the Reading Culture in Namibia workshop that was attended by a number of invited teachers in the capital. “The aim of this workshop,” said Manga, “is to equip the participants with skills that will enable them to expose and help our learners to access the wealth of available information to cope with academic demands as they go through the teaching and learning process.” According to Manga, the concept of learner-centred education necessitates the use of information resources that are relevant and specific to learners’ needs. “Books are indispensable instruments for lifelong learning. The Ministry of Education will remain focused in cultivating a reading culture in our learners through teacher-training and the acquisition and distribution of school library resources,” he assured the participants. He further stated that the results of the Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SEACMEQ, Grade 6, 2000) in Namibia showed that learners performed badly in reading compared to other countries in the region. “However, there are big differences in results between the 13 regions of Namibia. Namibia’s broad curriculum explicitly lists information skills as a crucial outcome of schooling. Only small minorities of Namibian schools have libraries and qualified librarians. The development of information literacy therefore depends on the teaching of Basic Information Science (BIS) in Namibian schools. Information skills are more than just having a library full of resources,” he told the participants. “In certain types of literature dealing with information skills, libraries are put forward as a prerequisite for information literacy. It is perhaps for this reason that the development of information skills is neglected in our schools, as many teachers still believe that access to a library is a prerequisite for the development of information skills,” Manga charged. On the contrary, for the development of information skills one only needs resources such as books, and these we have in all our schools. “It is also important to keep in mind that literacy is more than the acquisition of reading and writing skills, it is also a social practice or social currency and, as such, a key to social mobility, hence the prominence it is given in the ETSIP programme. I am aware that school libraries face several challenges, which were identified by the Annual Report Questionnaire, sent out to schools by Education Library Services (ELS),” he asserted. Manga also referred to some of the challenges in the promotion of reading in schools such as: a lack of training in the teaching of BIS and school library management; a lack of support from school principals; limited space for library activities and teachers being overloaded with subject teaching limiting time for BIS and library activities. “Despite these challenges and limitations, it is a pity that most schools, especially in the southern part of Namibia, still value the use of library resources as the cornerstone of all learning activities. It is therefore good for all of us to uplift the standard of our school libraries to vibrant teaching and learning centres to achieve the objectives of Vision 2030 with flying colours,” Manga concluded. The acting director of libraries and archives at the end of the workshop also expressed his gratitude for achieving its initial objectives: to raise awareness that the school library is the most important teaching / learning centre in the school – to create an understanding that teaching in the media centre depends on the teacher’s creativity in making, and creating teaching learning aids and a conducive environment. “It was also clearly understood that the school library teacher should not be confined to the library, but should move into the school to market library resources to all teachers and learners. More ways were clearly established to address problems, which are prevalent among learners especially in learning how to read to learn,” Manga said. “I would also like to emphasize that school library teachers cannot begin to function effectively without the cooperation of every teacher in the school and without the understanding, backing and concern of the school principal. You, as the library teacher, must be a first-class sales person who should plan with other teachers and schedule their learners for media centre visits,” he stressed. He added that school principals are expected to serve as a catalyst, bringing the library teacher and library resources together in such a manner that the reaction is inevitable. “The attitude of the principal towards the library teacher establishes his/her rightful place among other staff members. She or he will consider the library teacher as a specialist. Furthermore, the school library plays a unique role in promoting intellectual freedom in our learners. It serves as a point of voluntary access to information and ideas and as a learning laboratory for learners as they acquire critical thinking and problem-solving skills needed in a learner-centred education system,” said. “In conclusion, I would like to remind you that the bearer of every new thought is a rebel until his/her idea is refined and tested. We need to know not only what we believe, but we should be in a position to justify why we believe it. Therefore, you have a challenge to convince your whole school community that books and all other library resources are major channels by which the intellectual inheritance is handed down from generation to generation,” Manga said.