Date: 06/03/2007

Source: Department of Education

Title: Tsopo: Launch of Mobile Library

Launch of Mobile Library project

Programme Director, Ms Motsoeneng,
Executive Mayor of Mangaung Local Municipality, Councillor Mothupi,
Superintendent-General, Mr Rakometsi,
Managing Director of the Sponsors, Mr Tadashi Hasunuma,
Members of Senior Management of the department,
Councillors present,
Departmental officials from Head Office and Districts,
Distinguished guests,
Principals,
Educators and members of the media

It gives me great pleasure to be with you today, as we officially launch the Mobile Library project, not only for the community of Motheo and Thabo Mofutsanyana Districts, but for all the learners in the Free State. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this project and others like it, to do with books, learning resources in general and reading. Programme Director, perhaps I should give just a brief background of this project.

During a debate on the Education Budget on 19 May 2006, the Minister of Education, Ms Naledi Pandor, announced that over the next five years there should be a significant resource input to provinces. To support this Quality Improvement and Development Strategy, the Free State Department of Education established a partnership with a Japanese-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), called Together with Africa and Asia Association (TAAA) regarding mobile libraries as a solution to providing library and information resources to learners and educators in under-resourced rural areas. These libraries will not only make it possible to share resources. These libraries will also enable educators to cope with the great pressure of Outcomes-Based Education.

The main objectives of the Mobile Library project are:

* to promote fluency in reading, which is the basis of all further learning
* continuous training of educators to promote information literacy skills
* to support the curriculum with a wide range of learning and teaching resources
* to combat the traditional perception of a library as a place of study only; a library should trigger the association of "reading for fun and info."

Ladies and gentlemen, there is empirical evidence from various studies which in the past revealed that many of our school children could not read write or count at the age appropriate level. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of young people do not have access to a wide range of relevant and suitable reading and study materials, while we also have communities without libraries. So it has been something of a challenge to find access and find appropriate books.

However, we hope this initiative will go some way towards correcting such imbalances. The ultimate objective of the project is to build a three-way relationship between the educator, books and the learner. The educator is the critical link in establishing a positive relationship between learners and books. If this link is well forged in early education, learners will automatically turn to books for secondary and tertiary education study requirements, thus becoming independent, lifelong readers, learners and library users. Language skills are the basic block upon which every other type of learning at school rests.

The importance of libraries in society cannot be overemphasised. Libraries are the primary access points to information sources for the public at large. Mobile libraries play a particular role in the provision of information and in support of lifelong learning. They are not just storerooms for books and electronic media, more than just a place to study; they have so much to offer than meets the eye. The revitalisation of old libraries and the building and provision of new libraries in deprived areas are absolutely critical for the introduction of our children to reading. The provision of libraries such as the ones we launch today will begin to address our current shortage of books and other general reading materials. School libraries are integral to our school curriculum, to effective teaching and learning, to meaningful learning and to enjoyable reading and writing.

Ladies and gentlemen, we envisage that this new initiative will work together with other existing libraries in our province to strengthen the access to relevant information to support national, provincial and local developmental goals and priorities. As the mobile libraries link with other libraries, they will build on the existing relationship. I hope you will all agree with me that it is hardly necessary to argue the importance of information for development in our province. Information is a key resource for development in all sectors. It enables developing communities and society in particular to avoid wasting limited resources on repeating mistakes by others and on reinventing the wheel. It supports innovation which is dependent on the flow of ideas, information and knowledge within communities.

As I said earlier, there are many communities who either totally lack library facilities or who have inadequate library facilities. We are therefore calling on all partners to assist with the establishment and provision of more facilities. Likewise our resources in the libraries need to be reassessed so that they are applicable, relevant and accessible to all. When some of these concerns are addressed, marketing the library and information services, even with the limited resources, would be a much easier task to achieve.

It has been shown that a critical and pervasive element in economic development in the current age is the optimum utilisation of Information and Communication Technology. In this consideration, mobile libraries and libraries in general have an important role to play in making sure that the information revolution does not leave our people behind. With the mushrooming of information, the growth of knowledge and the advances in science and technology, the modern mobile libraries need to be equipped to address the varied needs of its patron communities.

It is from this premise that we need to address aspects relating to the transformation of library services to meet the needs of all people whether they are literate, semi-literate or illiterate. Allow me Programme Director, to thank all involved in this project, especially the Together with Africa and Asia Association for the role they are playing in creating literate and well informed communities. To you we say, continue with the good work in reaching out to our communities and making a difference.

As partners in education we must commit ourselves to further improve the quality of learning and teaching even in the most rural and marginalised communities of our province. We must also ensure that we deploy requisite resources to these schools to enable them to discharge their responsibilities more effectively according to set standards. We need to create school environments where children are made to enjoy themselves with their schoolwork and feel the importance of attending school.

Ladies and gentlemen, given the magnitude of the task ahead, we once again urge the public and private sectors to invest massively in our education system. We need to join hands to ensure that our children receive high-quality learning and teaching. Together we can make it, as we have done before. I would like to once again thank Mr Hasunuma and Together with Africa and Asia Association for making this project possible.

It is our responsibility as the Free State Department of Education to ensure that all schools in Motheo and Thabo Mofutsanyana Districts that will receive services from this project, utilise it maximally. We are waiting with anticipation for the other three mobile libraries which you will be delivering during this year for deployment to the other three remaining districts. I invite other partners to come on board and to help expand this project to other needy schools.

I thank you

Issued by: Department of Education, Free State Provincial Government
6 March 2007

Last Modified: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 14:20:00 SAST