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MARCH 24, 2022
Libraries: key to reading By Viv Posselt and Mary Anne Gill
Former St Peter’s Catholic School student Lisette Reymer has become a familiar face to news’ viewers as she reports from Ukraine. On a day when the importance of libraries in schools is underlined, she talks to Mary Anne Gill about how she was inspired at school to enter journalism – and about her life as a war correspondent. See page 10.
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School librarians say they’re the answer to a declining nationwide literacy rate. Former School Library Association of New Zealand president Glenys Bichan, who is library manager at Cambridge High School, says nearly a quarter of school libraries had budget cuts before Covid. Of the country’s 2500 schools, only 900 had paid librarians. Yet during the pandemic it was school libraries that helped deliver online support to families trying to navigate learning from home, she said. Bichan and her Te Awamutu College colleague Janet Burgoyne-Thomas both say they are in the fortunate position of having flourishing school libraries and supportive principals in Greg Thornton and Tony Membery. And they operate in a district where council libraries in both towns are issuing record numbers with lack of space for more books and library items cited as the primary problem. In Cambridge planning is underway for a new town library. Other Waipā primary school libraries are less fortunate and across New Zealand some libraries have closed due to dwindling support or poor choices. One closed within six months of a new principal being appointed, another put one-time librarian funding into a new lawnmower. A call to ring fence libraries, provide equitable access and appropriate funding has been supported by Waipā journalist Lisette Reymer, who has been reporting for Newshub in Ukraine. “I read every day for work, it’s obviously a critical part of research and I am a news junkie so am constantly reading articles,” she said. Global research supports a link between well-run school libraries and literacy rates, said Bichan.
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A new report from The Education Hub think-tank, Now I don’t know my ABC the perilous state of literacy in Aotearoa New Zealand, released this week drew on multiple studies to paint a stark picture of the crisis in reading and writing. Nearly one in five 15-year-olds were not meeting the lowest benchmark for reading, and a further 20 percent were only achieving at the most basic level. Most of the data used was pre Covid meaning two years of disrupted learning made the current situation even worse, said Bichan. Bichan said the School Library Association of New Zealand was working with the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme, a government-led initiative launched in May 2020 to support Covid recovery work across the country’s library system. Part of the initiative is Communities of Learning, or Kāhui Ako, a group of education providers established to nurture school libraries. Leading that project locally is Cambridge East School librarian/inquiry broker, Kirsty Wyndham, who said the aim of having a Kāhui Ako librarian here was to showcase the value of school libraries and librarians. Bichan is also involved in the School Libraries Transform Campaign, aimed at pushing for school library funding to be ‘ring-fenced’ rather than reliant on schools’ operational funds. “That would mean funds and dedicated library spaces would be secure. The campaign has received much attention – school libraries have a strong voice. We must focus on making that happen.” A fuller version of this story appears on www.cambridgenews.nz Constantly reading: Newshub’s Europe correspondent Lisette Reymer grew up in Waipā and says her passion for English began at school. Read more on page 10.