Reading culture among senior high school students in Wa municipality the role of the school library

Abstract

This study aimed at establishing how the school library can be used to nurture a reading culture among senior high school students. The objectives were to: establish the types and availability of reading materials in the school library; establish the attitudes of students towards the use of the school library, investigate how students make use of the reading materials provided and to find out the roles of librarians and teachers of English in promoting a reading culture among students. The study was guided by Vygotsky’s socio-cultural model of reading, Skinner’s behaviorists theory and a conceptual framework. It adopted a convergent parallel design. Schools were purposively sampled in that only schools with libraries were selected. A total of ten schools were chosen. One librarian and one teacher for English were picked from each school, hence a sampling frame of 10 librarians and 10 teachers of English was attained. The sample also included 33 students selected by simple random sampling in each school; thus, a total of 330 students were used. Data was collected using the questionnaire, interview guide and observation checklist. What was analyzed using descriptive statistics was then presented thematically and also in the form of tables and figures. Findings indicated that school libraries mostly stock examination-oriented texts like course books, revision books and story books (mostly old text books), newspapers and books on donations. It was established that students believe that these texts equip them with knowledge and skills necessary for passing examinations. The conclusions were that most libraries were stocked with only course books and had insufficient comic books, storybooks, journals and magazines. School libraries need to be stocked with books with relevant content and library lessons should be included in the school time table.