25 Apr 2016

The African Library Project plays a pivotal role in imparting essential skills that contribute to building an educated and informed nation.

Speaking at African Library Project (ALP) workshop in Kanye on April 21, the education director for the southern region, Mr Acro Maseko commended the Americans for conducting such a exercise and urged them to continue with the good gesture.

Mr Maseko encouraged teachers to involve parents in the project. He decried the poor performance of some schools, saying it was detrimental to the development of the country. 

He said illiteracy should be given no room in communities.

For his part, ALP product, Mr Karabo Ramosamo said there were five aspects of education namely; teacher, student, parent, infrastructure and resources.

He said it was impossible to build an educated and informed nation without the library.

He added that through ALP he managed to be an independent reader and also passed with flying colours through his entire studying process.

Mr Ramosamo said it was important to encourage reading at the grassroot level and used a Setswana idiom that lore lo ojwa lo sale metsi to drive his point.

The project coordinator, Ms Olga Tsimanyana said their mandate was to develop literacy skills among pupils at a tender age.

She said the project would assist develop independent readers and researchers which was in line with the Vision 2016 pillar of “an educated and informed nation,” and help elevate the country’s literacy rankings internationally. 

The founder and president of the project, Ms Chris Bradshaw said reading increases creativity for pupils and enhances their knowledge.

She said the mission of ALP was to start and improve small libraries in Sub-Saharan African countries.

Ms Bradshaw added that they would cover 12 countries and avai a lot of books for the project.

She noted that they already have 381 libraries across the country, mostly in primary schools. ENDS