Francesca Rudkin: Sometimes things that help kids aren't that hard - money for libraries for instance

About five years ago we started talking about how school pools where being closed. 165 school pools had closed in the previous five years and more were at risk of closing due of health and safety or maintenance costs.

The big losers were, of course, the kids.

We want our children to know how to be safe around water, especially with our drowning figures.

But with schools struggling to build enough classrooms, let alone manage a pool only used for part of the year, it wasn’t a surprise to see schools find alternative ways to teach children water safety.

Even more appallingly, a recent Listener article in the NZ Herald tells how schools are now sacrificing libraries too.  

First pools, now libraries – where’s the fun in going to school?!  

So here’s the thing, libraries are not mandated.

It’s up to the school’s management and board of trustees to decide whether they have the space and resources for a library, maybe even a librarian, or whether they need that space or budget for something else.  

It’s a fascinating article by Paul Little and I encourage you to read it. In it Little writes “New Zealand has 2,434 state and state integrated schools. The School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa estimates 900 of them do not have a library...”.  

I found that number confronting. We have plummeting literacy rates, and many schools do not have a library. Apparently, research shows schools that have “libraries with librarians have higher reading test scores, academic achievement and positive attitudes towards learning.”

Basically, they do better.  

I’m not saying a library is the silver bullet to solving our low literacy standards (and not all schools are big enough to justify a library) but libraries do play a part, even if it’s just a small corner filled with books and a few bean bags.  

If you’ve had a child go through school you will have seen how reading impacts their learning - kids who read tend to flourish.

The benefits though are more than that - it’s so much more fun being allowed to choose your own book rather than the dry ones you’re made to read in class.

It’s good to get out of the classroom and learn in a different environment. It’s a place of sanctuary for many children who need a moment's respite from the chaos of the playground. For many it is the only opportunity to access books, and for others marks the beginning of being a lifelong library user.

So as we head into this election, it’s excellent to hear all this policy about how we get back to teaching the basics and focusing on reading, writing and maths.

Over the next few months we’ll see lots of political posturing, positioning, announcements and kneeling for photos with kids. Sometimes, though, the things that help aren’t that hard – like money for school libraries so our kids have something to read.

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