| |Annette Muscat |
| | |
| |Index no. 16 |
Indicate 2 serious problems that need to be tackled if school libraries are to be the powerhouses of schools.
Introduction
This 2 year course has made me more aware of how powerful high performing school libraries and Schools Library Service can be in raising students’ literacy levels and improving their access to knowledge. This link also suggests that if school libraries do not perform to the highest level there will be significant implications for student achievement. Lack of direct funding towards school libraries and Schools Library Service will hinder this link. This is not the only problem that I see. Another problem is that school libraries are usually absent from School Development Plans and even worse, absent from National Curriculum Frameworks, with the consequences that library professionals are left out from giving their professional contributions and the library not getting its regular fair share of funds.
An Active Involvement in Sustainable Development Issues.
‘I am concerned that school administrators may not fully understand the critical role school libraries and their librarians play in fostering and academic achievement and student success in a technology-driven world.’
:Maureen Sullivan, President of the American Library Association (ALA)
In various schools, school libraries are an underutilised resource, often perceived by headteachers to be a low priority. What should be a vital ingredient of our schools system is marginalised and seems not to be connected with the acknowledged educational priorities of literacy and information skills supporting knowledge acquisition,