Three needy schools from the Makhado municipal area have handed over a memorandum to the Department of Education in Polokwane last Tuesday (30th), asking that libraries be set up at these learning institutions.

Hundreds of learners from Makhado Comprehensive Secondary School, Djunane Primary School and Munzhedzi Primary School arrived in three buses in Polokwane. These schools had tried their best to get libraries and a librarian, but to no avail.

The co-ordinator of Equal Education (EE) for schools libraries in Limpopo, Mrs Caroline Ndivhuwo Madzhie, said that the campaign was designed to make sure schools were getting libraries.

Madzhie also indicated that thousands of high school students, teachers and parents had made a commitment to ensure that the government provided every school with a fully functioning library.

She said that EE was a movement of learners, parents, teachers and community members working for quality and equality in South Africa education through analysis and activism. The focus and attention was directed by the interests of members, drawn largely from working-class and poor people.

A concerned learner, Gundo Matamela from Makhado Comprehensive Secondary School, handed over the memorandum to the Department of Education´s delegate. She said that learners were deprived of information due to the lack of libraries. She also said that the Department of Education had to provide all schools with fully functional libraries, where learners and teachers could source information and find books to read for pleasure.

Mr Benny Boshielo, Head of the Department of Education in Limpopo, received the memorandum on behalf of the MEC for Education, Dickson Namane Masemola. Boshielo said that the commitment of the government was to establish more libraries in rural and urban areas, because some schools  already had libraries. He said the Department of Education, joined by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture and local municipalities, was going to select the needy schools to get libraries.

"We are encouraging learners to read books, because libraries play a critical role in building literacy by developing a culture of reading. Libraries are also safe spaces to study for young people who do not have a quiet, well-lit place at home," Boshielo said.