A new library was on Wednesday commissioned by Education Minister Priya Manickchand at Tain Primary School on the Corentyne in East Berbice in an initiative jointly undertaken by the Ministry of Education and the National Library.
The Ministry of Education and the private sector have also both provided computers for the library.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand and education officials at the handing over of computers to the school library
This new facility is expected to improve literacy at the school, and efforts are being made to have a library commissioned in every primary school across the country as a way to educate future leaders.
The Tain Primary School Library would allow both students and adults to access information via books, and
Education Minister Priya Manickchand has said that every primary school throughout the country would be equipped with a library, and libraries are simultaneously being developed at secondary schools.
“We have bought some beautiful books that I would like you to enjoy…a whole set of books that children want; and every single primary school – from Paramakatoi to Skeldon to Charity to Georgetown – we have begun to start libraries in every secondary school with the Nancy Drews and the Hardy Boys. We believe that it is not just teaching our children to read, but it is giving them material that can take them on a journey. It can make them a princess, it can make you into a warrior, it can make you into a villain, it can teach you how to stand up to bullying, it can teach you how not to be a bully,” she detailed.
Reading is considered an inexpensive form of entertainment that could also bring lasting pleasure. It assists in vocabulary expansion and memory improvement.
The Tain Primary School Library is the twenty-fifth rural library to have been established in Guyana.
“And here in Berbice, we have one in Crabwood Creek, Lancaster, Kildonan, Port Mourant, and now at Tain, and we have the New Amsterdam Library branch. This library has more than 2,000 books, and it is not for the Tain Primary School alone, it is for the community of Tain,” Minister Manickchand disclosed.
She pointed out that despite the existence of libraries, there are many children who cannot read at a level expected of them. Many who sit the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) cannot read, and enter secondary school with that deficiency. The aim of the Ministry of Education, she said, is to ensure that, by Grade Four, every child can read.
“Read, understand what they are reading, and represent that in writing,” she underscored.
The minister has also disclosed that a Literacy Department has been established within the Ministry of Education, and it is being headed by the Assistant Chief Education Officer.
