Across the United States, research has shown that students in schools with good school libraries learn more, get better grades, and score higher on standardized test scores than their peers in schools without libraries. From Alaska to North Carolina, more than 60 studies have shown clear evidence of this connection between student achievement and the presence of school libraries with qualified school library media specialists.
In the Philippines there is a severe lack of public libraries. Reading programs are not enough, by themselves alone, to achieve the overall and longer-term objective of making children fall in love with reading and become regular readers for life.
Read-along are great in sparking a child’s initial interest in books and reading. But something more is needed to convert that initial interest into a real love of books and a lifetime reading habit. According to experts, children need at least two other things to actually adopt such a habit: (1) As much guidance, encouragement and example as they can get from their usual role models – their parents,