Evaluation of effectiveness of School Library in improving the reading culture among School going pupils: A case study of Kamwala High School in Lusaka
Date
2014-08-27
Authors
Kole, Vincent
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Abstract
Reading is an essential part in today's education system. The library is also seen as housing vast knowledge that need to be read by any one. The essence of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of school libraries in promoting good reading culture and academic performance among school going pupils in particular, Kamwala High School pupils. The research adopted a non- experimental design which was descriptive in nature. 70 grade twelve pupils were selected as part of the sample systematically. From the data collected, the analysis revealed that the school library did not stock reading materials that interest them to read. As a result the main source of reading materials for pupils at this school was from their friends. The study also revealed that there was a close correlation between reading and academic performance because almost half of those who read from the library said that their academic performance had improved. Additionally sex was found to have an impact on the reading culture as female pupils tend to read more from the library than their male counterparts It was also revealed that the most effective mode of information provision for the pupils was restrictive reading within the confinement of the library. The attitudes of the teachers were also found to be not so good towards the library as most pupils said that their teachers never gave them work to research from the library. In view of these findings, the study recommends that library services should be extended even in holidays ,also that the library should conduct an information needs assessment for the pupils so that it can acquire materials that will be usefLil to the pupils other recommendations made are that the book clubs should be strengthened as they are a good mode through which pupils can be encouraged to read more often, management to introduce computer compulsory computer lessons to enable pupils access materials from the internet and the library to allocate more time to each class for library research on topics of their interest. From the findings the study concluded that the library at Kamwala High School did not at all improve the reading culture of pupils reason being that the collection did not matchup with the needs of the users (pupils)
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Reading Culture-Zambia , School library(reading culture)-Lusaka,Zambia