Johannesburg, South Africa. October 28, 1999
A library against the
odds
A champion
librarian puts his own resources into serving the community, writes
PATRICK BURNETT
ITH no money and
few resources, librarian and teacher Hlabje Juju has succeeded in
setting up a library in the Transkei which will benefit thousands of
pupils in poor rural schools. Next month the Elliotdale project
involving 22 schools will be visited by Minister of Education Kader
Asmal and provincial MEC Stone Sizani for an official launch.
Committing personal
resources: Hlabje Juju in his library
|
The library is situated at
Kwantfhunqe Junior Secondary school in Elliotdale near Umtata and has
roughly 500 fiction, non-fiction and subject-related books donated to
the provincial Department of Education.
For Juju, establishing the library meant explaining to a community
steeped in illiteracy what a library is. He also had to overcome
logistical problems such as a lack of shelves and transport to get books
to the school. Now he sees a fledgling library growing in scope from a
regional to a district level that will enhance rural education and boost
the government's outcomes-based education (OBE) aims. "The aim is to
establish a library in every school, but at the moment this library acts
as a resource for many schools."
He says while the project is presently confined to schools, the way
forward is to establish a central district library so smaller regional
libraries can access books. Juju has been a teacher in Elliotdale since
1994, but his involvement in the library came after the Swedish
government offered assistance in the form of human resources development
for librarians.
After a two-week visit to Sweden in May last year, Juju became
involved in a project initiated by Swedish-based NGO Bibliotek I
Samhalle (BIS) that began in Elliotdale in September 1998. The project
is part of a national project being piloted locally in Elliotdale for
South Africa.
An initial research phase involved meetings with teachers and parents
to discuss the establishment of the library -- meetings which Juju says
revealed how important libraries are to OBE. "Rural areas are very
disadvantaged, and we can see that if libraries are established OBE will
be successful."
Juju says because the OBE system aims to encourage the creativity and
initiative of learners, the new system "will never even move without a
library". But establishing the library posed considerable challenges for
Juju, who said local headmen, community members and teachers did not
know what the term meant. "Because of illiteracy it is difficult to
explain and I had to show them what I was talking about."
Juju says after the research process he met with teachers and
parents, using pictures to explain what a library can do for the
community. This led to the forming of a library committee and further
workshops with teachers.
But even once the idea had been accepted, making the library a
reality was still hampered by a lack of shelves for the books and
transport for donated books. Juju found a college of education in Umtata
willing to donate shelves but there was no transport to fetch them. The
college principal volunteered the use of his private car.
There was also no transport to fetch donated books held by the
provincial education department in Umtata to the school, and Juju used
his own money to buy petrol so the books could be fetched. Juju says he
also organised educational wildlife and mathematics video cassettes for
the library which he shows to pupils on his own television set.
Ultimately, he hopes to include computers as part of the library to
train teachers and pupils in computer literacy. He says the library is
having an impact on learners -- especially those in grade one and two,
who are already following the OBE curriculum.
Department of Education regional co-ordinator Melrose Makongwana
praised Juju for doing "wonderful work" in "very tough" conditions. She
said the library complemented the OBE system and would help pupils to
cope with the new curriculum.
In a province where the education department's budget is enough to
cover only the bare necessities, Juju says much can be achieved simply
through dedication. Referring to the process of showing the community
how it is possible to have a library, Jaju says: "Everybody can see that
for nothing you can do something."
--- Eastern Cape News Service, October 28, 1999.
WHO WE ARE
