07 Sep 2017

Information Communication Technology (ICT) facilitator at Tatisiding reading centre, Mr Tendani Colleyer says the community is making use of the reading room.

Mr Colleyer said this in an interview recently, noting that the intended purpose of the reading centre was to bridge the gap of lack of a library within the village.

He said they had 250 registered members and that on a daily basis they received about 150 people who visited the centre to access services offered.

Mr Colleyer said services offered included book loaning, noting that those with membership cards were loaned books over a period of two weeks while those without cards only used the book within the centre.

He also said they provided basic computer training, membership application cards as well as the use of computers and the Internet.

Mr Colleyer also noted that they have a chess club, and encouraged secondary and tertiary students to form study groups, saying they were closely monitored by the librarian.

Mr Colleyer said the reading room has significantly addressed challenges of computer illiteracy in the village.

He said since the inception of free basic computer training programme, 200 people had attended lessons and satisfactorily completed their course.

Mr Colleyer further said they were piloting a new ICT programme at primary level and that 20 pupils had been chosen to attend the lessons.

“We have introduced a new ICT piloting project at primary level, the intention is to familiarise primary school going children with the basic use of a computer,” he said.

Mr Colleyer further said due to limited resources, people with laptops and smart phones who visited the centre to access the Internet were given a password to access Wi-Fi.

 “This is done to avoid queuing for computers which can result in congestion,” said Mr Colleyer, adding that they were still faced with challenges of limited computers.

Meanwhile, Kgosi Simon Nkgageng of Tatisiding said the availability of the reading room was an advantage to his community.

He said although the village does not have a fully-fledged library, services offered were making a significant difference.

“I am happy that people around have shown interest to the services, especially that of basic computer training, and this is ideal to close the computer illiteracy gap within the village,” he said.

Kgosi Nkgageng further said the reading room was run from a rented Village Development Committee (VDC) house. BOPA