Govt seeks to transform role of school librarians

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology is carrying out a program to transform the role of librarians at educational institutions to optimize their contribution to the learning process.t the “2023 National Coordination Meeting on Library” here on Monday, the ministry’s Director of School Principals, Supervisors, and Workers, Praptono, said that so far, the task and responsibility of librarians at schools has only been limited to managing libraries.

However, through the transformation, the ministry is aiming to help librarians become supporters of learning at schools.

He further explained that, through the transformation, librarians could carry out knowledge- and book-based activities to support students’ learning achievements, especially for improving students’ literacy and numeracy skills and character learning.

“The focus of the services is (transformed) from managing books to organizing book-based activities,” he said.

Moreover, the ministry’s Merdeka Curriculum (Independent Curriculum) program has been implemented by more than 143 thousand schools, especially project-based learning.

Thus, learning activities that students participate in require collaboration between teachers and support workers, including librarians, for achieving learning goals.

The project-based learning activities will habituate students to conducting literature reviews and engaging in discussions so that activities at libraries can be made more interactive.

The transformation efforts are expected to result in better librarians and libraries, and change the older focus on book borrowing to enabling students’ involvement in book-based activities.

Source: Antara News Agency