Monday, July 21, 2008 Speak out: Realizing a dream By Viurina B. Baguio School Administrator Buagsong Elementary School Cordova, Cebu
I BELIEVED that libraries and not Internet cafés should be the best hang out of school children, especially with the present rate of non-readers in public schools.
But sad to say not all public schools are blessed with libraries or even books required in the daily lessons.
I pity some of my pupils, who are already in grade school and yet are not familiar with the popular fairy tale stories. This is because storybooks are considered luxuries and rare items, especially in the public school setting.
This, however, is finally answered with the Department of Education’s (DepEd) “Library Hub Project.” The project aims to establish a library hub in every public school division across the country.
It is aimed to increase the declining literacy of public schoolchildren through the promotion of the love for reading.
The library hub is not a regular library. It is actually a warehouse of all reading materials that pupils can bring to their classrooms and even take home.
In the sixth district of Cebu, the Cordova Central School is proud to be the home of the library hub in the district. This means public schools from the district can borrow books from the library and even out-of-school-youths.
Civil works for the renovation of a building at the central school that will house the library started recently. Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy funded the labor work for the renovation.
The DepEd central office will provide the storybooks, textbooks and various reference materials, including imported books for beginning readers, science and mathematics books.
As a public school teacher, it is my dream that my pupils will be at par with their counterparts in the private schools and I believe that the library will greatly help in complementing the lessons I discuss everyday.
What used to be a dream is now near to reality. Maybe the local government can help through their school boards in training staff to handle the operations of the library hub. The private sector will also play a great role in the success of this dream.
Read-a-thon for the children will then be a great activity.
