05-04-2012, 01:34 PM
AN ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING RESOURCES AND SERVICES AVAILABLE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
AN ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING RESOURCES AND SERVICES.docx (Size: 40.8 KB / Downloads: 233)
INTRODUCTION
The expectation of Secondary School education in Nigeria is to broaden children’s knowledge and outlook, prepare them for academic, technical and vocational education (Fayoshe, 1995). The School library is established to serve the nursery, primary and Secondary Schools, it acquires, organizes and makes available learning resources for the development of Schools, teacher education and students especially in the advanced information societies. The School library as a learning resource centers emphasis upon all resources both electronic and books. It is knowledge channel which compliment Schools and directly supports lifelong learning.
Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the study include the following:
1) To ascertain the number of schools with library/resource centers in Calabar Municipality, Cross River State;
2) To find out the learning resources available for the teachers;
3) To examine the services provided by librarians to the secondary school teachers;
The Setting and Methodology
The study was conducted in Calabar Municipality. Calabar, the Capital of Cross River State in almost surrounded by water. It has boundary with Akpabuyo, Odukpani and the Cross River. There are Sixty-Six (66) Secondary Schools, with over 982 teachers in Calabar Municipality,, ( State Secondary Schools, Education Board, Planning Research and Statistics Section, 2009).
Learning Resources Available in the Secondary School Libraries
One of the objectives of the study is to determine the availability of learning resources in secondary schools libraries in Calabar Municipality. The researchers observed that five (5) out of the fourteen (14) Government Secondary Schools visited have between 1000 volumes to 3000 volumes of books. Four (4) Schools have between 500 volumes 999 volumes, 7 Schools have under 499 volumes.
Services Available in School Libraries
Another objective of this study was to examine the service provided by librarians to the secondary school teachers, In addition to making adequate and current learning resources available to improve the quality of teacher’s education, effective service is the cornerstone of the schools library/resources centres. In order to achieve this function a qualified librarian should be available to provide services.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Federal Schools, private and Missionary Schools as well as the State government owned Schools are faced with challenges of providing schools libraries and learning resources for the secondary schools. In Cross River State this problem take a different dimension altogether. Not only one there not enough libraries but also reading and recreational materials are negligible while the struggle to renovate library in buildings schools, providing recommended texts in all subjects, but recreational library resources reading materials are negligible.