A study of the role of the library in education as perceived by secondary school heads in selected secondary schools in Iveti South division Machakos district

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out what role head of secondary schools think a school play in education. The study also tried to find about whether the heads perceived role of the school library is reflected in the provision and utilization of library facilities in their schools.

The study was conducted in Iveti south division of Machakos district. The division has 26 secondary schools but only 7 have central functional libraries. Five schools were therefore randomly selected for the study. Time constraints made it impossible to study the total population of seven schools.

In the five selected schools, a questionnaire was administered to all the heads, all the teacher-librarians, 25 teachers and 50 students. The heads questionnaire, the teacher librarians, the teachers and students questionnaires were different and were designed to get different information from each group. The researcher also visited each school library in the five schools and observed the situation prevailing in each library.

With minor variations, the study found that heads of secondary schools were poorly informed on the role of school library in education and, as feared, this was reflected in the poor provision of resources and services in the school libraries. Several recommendations were made. One of these was the pre education of serving secondary school heads on the important role of the school library in education. It was also recommended that all teacher-training institutions both primary and secondary teach a compulsory and examinable course on school librarianship to all their trainees.