Using Evidence in Practice
Engaging Students Who Have Insufficient Library Resources: A Case of a Secondary School in Lahore, Pakistan
Abdul Jabbar
Librarian
Department of
Political Science and Visiting Lecturer
Institute of
Information Management
University of
the Punjab
Lahore,
Pakistan
Email: jabbar.polsc@pu.edu.pk
Nosheen
Fatima Warraich
Director
Institute of
Information Management
University of
the Punjab
Lahore,
Pakistan
Email: nosheen.im@pu.edu.pk
Received: 12 Oct.
2022 Accepted: 8 Dec.
2022
2023 Jabbar and Warraich. This is an Open
Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons‐Attribution‐Noncommercial‐Share Alike License 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly attributed, not used for commercial purposes, and, if transformed, the
resulting work is redistributed under the same or similar license to this one.
DOI: 10.18438/eblip30263
Setting
The majority
of schools in Pakistan have libraries that are nonexistent or in poor
condition. Where school libraries exist, students are not interested in
visiting them due to a lack of interest from principals and teachers,
inadequate curriculum structure, and outdated and irrelevant resources
available in these libraries. Government Pilot Higher Secondary School is
situated in Wahdat Colony, Lahore City, the
provincial capital of Punjab province, Pakistan. It is one of the oldest and
biggest schools in Lahore, covering 25 acres and including 41 classrooms, one
library, one staff room, two canteens, and a large playground. It was initially
started as a high school in 1958 and then upgraded to a secondary school in
2017. It consists of a qualified and well-experienced principal and a total of
80 teachers, including 70 males and 10 females.
Approximately
2,000 students from grades 1 through 12 are studying in the school. The school
has a library room with a collection of approximately 5,000 books. There are a
total of 28 iron shelves on which books are arranged by subject. The majority of the books are related to religion and
history. There is no spine labelling of books. The borrowing facility is
available for the students and teachers and is maintained through a register.
Initially, books are issued for seven working days but can be extended on
demand. There is no specified budget for the purchase of books; rather, the
government provides books for the library. There is no professional
librarian appointed; rather, a teacher who has a M.Phil. in Urdu is voluntarily
assisting with the library, and he is gaining no extra financial benefits for
this service.
Problem
According to
the rules, it is compulsory for academic institutions in Pakistan, whether
public or private, to have a library to support teaching and learning. As per
the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) Act of 1975,
a school must have a well-stocked library building to be affiliated with the
board. In the case of the establishment of a new school library, Rs. 25000 must
be spent in the first year, with the provision of Rs. 5000 in subsequent years’
budgets. There should also be an adequate number of newspapers and periodicals.
Here, newspapers are considered as printed publications issued daily containing
news, articles, and advertisements whereas periodicals indicate monthly
magazines, journals, and newsletters. The school must appoint a library
assistant having a certificate or diploma in library science.
We have
observed in the case of Pilot Higher Secondary School that there is an
inappropriate library building, non-provision of budget for collection
development, and no appointment of a library professional, resulting in minimal
use of the school library. Scanning of the currently available library
collection revealed that the majority of books were
not written at the appropriate level for students or are outdated or
irrelevant. Although there is a provision of a library period every day, equal
to one class time, students have not utilized that period due to irrelevant
books, unavailability of a library professional, lack of interest by the
principal and school teachers, and student and teacher misperceptions regarding
leisure reading habits and their benefits.
Evidence
We
established a team of six graduate students studying at the Institute of
Information Management to visit the school. We planned to conduct face-to-face
interviews with the principal, schoolteachers, and students to better
understand the status of the school library and to explore why there was
minimal use of the school library. To devise interview questions, we consulted
Tabassum et al.’s (2019) study, which explored the status of school libraries
and their developmental issues in a Pakistani context.
The interview
questions were categorized in terms of school heads/principals,
librarians/teacher-librarians, teachers, and students. The principal was asked
about his educational profile, role in extending school library services, and
future library development plans. The teacher assisting with the library was
asked about his perceptions of the school library, the library management
system, and library facilities and services. Schoolteachers were asked about
their own use of the school library, perceptions about library benefits, and
their strategies to promote library use among students. Students were asked
about their library perceptions, visitation practices, and their satisfaction
with the library services. Our team was trained to conduct and record in-depth
interviews.
The
face-to-face interviews were conducted with the principal, five schoolteachers,
the teacher assisting with the library, and 15 students from different grades
in August and September 2022. All interviews were recorded and transcribed.
Each interview took an average of 15 minutes to complete. This evidence helped
us to understand the situation and perceptions of the principal, teachers, and
students regarding the school library.
Views of School Library Stakeholders
Although
there was a view that the school library had a significant place in engaging
students towards leisure reading and lifelong learning, interviewees expressed
frustration with the lack of support from the government for the provision of
infrastructure, finance, staff, and required resources for the library. They
stated that the staff member working in the library was unqualified to provide
professional library services, and interviewees mentioned that there was almost
no use of the school library for library-related activities. The school library
opens every day during the library period, but a low number of students use it
due to the non-availability of relevant sources and facilities, and a lack of
motivation.
Schoolteachers
mentioned that there was almost no use of the school library; rather, the
library room was used for other activities. They pointed out that the
irrelevant and outdated library stock, lack of budget, and non-library-oriented
curriculum structure, which focuses on passing tests and examinations rather
than the development of voluntary reading, were major obstacles to extensive
use of the school library. The interview data also revealed that
schoolteachers did not consider the library to be an important place because
the emphasis at the school is on the completion of coursework.
Views of Students
The majority of the students (n = 9, 60%) claimed they rarely visited the library (once
a month). They disclosed that their teachers did not give any assignments that
required a visit to the library. Because there was a peaceful environment
for reading but unavailability of relevant and interesting reading materials,
they did not like to visit the library. The students were of the view that
the structure of their curriculum did not support voluntary reading, but rather
encouraged assigned or examination related-readings. A 12th grade
student stated: “unfortunately, we have to spend the library period out of the
school library.” This expression showed the ineffectiveness of library periods
for the students due to the lack of resources and services, and the teachers’
and administration interests in developing and promoting the school library.
Implementation
The evidence
helped us to understand the situation that although there was a lack of
resources and staffing in the school library, we should work on changing
the perceptions of the principal, schoolteachers, and students regarding the
importance and significance of the use of the school library. We were also
planning to work on how and what activities were possible to be conducted
through available resources to engage students in leisure reading.
First, we
conducted an audit of the available library collection to find relevant and
interesting reading materials. We separated a total of 250 books that were up
to the level of the students and might interest them.
Second, we
planned three activities to conduct with the students in the presence of their
teachers and the principal in the library during library periods. The
activities—quiz competition, Urdu poetry competition, and book reviews—were
planned according to available resources, and with the guidance of the
principal, the teacher assisting with the library, and schoolteachers. A flyer
was designed to advertise the library activities and was placed on notice
boards and near the entrance of the school. Three days before the program, our
team visited each classroom to prepare students for participation. The
details of the conducted activities are described below.
Quiz Competition
The program
took place on October 3, 2022, with 10 5th grade students who voluntarily
agreed to participate, with their remaining classmates as an audience. The quiz
contained questions related to general knowledge, about which students were
informed during the advertisement of the activity. Each student was asked five
questions and upon failure to answer, they were dropped from the competition.
After two rounds of competition, two students remained, with the final winner
announced by the chief guest.
Poetry Competition
This
competition of poetry in Urdu language was held among students from upper
grades: two students from each class from 6th to 12th
grade. The competitors were given letters from the alphabet (i.e., ا، ج، ل ) and were asked to read
a verse starting with that letter. Three students were announced as winners of
the competition.
Book Reviews
The students
of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade were provided
books according to their level to read silently for half an hour. These books
were selected by our team with the consultation of a teacher, the principal,
and a library committee member. The library committee consisted of three
schoolteachers from science and arts subjects and the principal. The students
were requested to provide a review of the books they read. Interesting and
analytical reviews were received. At the end of these activities, prizes were
distributed among the winners.
Outcome
The outcome
of the project was wonderful. The students showed surprising interest and
enthusiasm to be part of these activities. We observed that these activities
stimulated their interest in leisure reading and in visiting the school library
during library periods. They urged for a continuation of such activities in the
future.
The
principal, teacher assisting with the library, and schoolteachers learned a lot
and they demonstrated that despite minimal resources it was wonderful to
conduct these activities to stimulate students’ reading motivation and literacy
engagement. They asked us to serve voluntarily as consultants for the school
library, which we accepted. The principal committed to focusing on the
development of the library collection by establishing an active library
committee. He was also in support of students utilizing the library period in
the library in the presence of a teacher who would assist with the library.
Reflection
The process
was long and required continuous focus. However, cooperative behavior,
specifically from the principal and the teacher assisting with the library,
helped us a lot in planning and conducting these activities. As there was no funding
for this project, it was difficult for us to manage traveling, printing, and
prize purchasing. Overall, it was a wonderful opportunity for us to learn new
things, and we felt satisfied to be able to engage students who previously had
minimal chances to use the library. In the future, we are planning to visit
other public schools situated in the geographical boundaries of Lahore and
adjacent rural areas. Collecting evidence from these school libraries, we plan
to conduct varied innovative reading promotion activities to engage school
students.
Acknowledgments
We
acknowledge extensive support for data collection by the graduate students of
the Institute of Information Management, University of the Punjab, Lahore. The
welcoming behavior of the principal, person serving as a librarian, and other
teachers of Government Pilot Higher Secondary School is highly acknowledged.
Author Contributions
Abdul Jabbar: Conceptualization, Investigation,
Data curation, Methodology, Writing – original draft Nosheen Fatima Warraich: Conceptualization, Project administration,
Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing
References
Tabassum, F., Batool, S. H.,
Ameen, K., & Hassan, M. (2019). Status of school libraries and
developmental issues in Pakistan: A case study of public high schools. Global
Knowledge, Memory, and Communication, 68(4/5), 377-391. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-08-2018-0070