New books on their way to Ncemaneni
Tue, 1 June 2010
- ‘We started selecting books from the first day. Most of the books we selected are written in IsiZulu including collections of poetry, novels and short stories. We also chose some English novels; books on sport, religion, and computer literacy, we also bought a few Maths books.’ Ms. Mhlongo, school librarian.*
REPORT 1: Ncemaneni Container Library Project
The Izzi Trust will provide Ncemaneni Combined School with improved reading resources in the form of 1,200 new books in English and Zulu. 388 children from Grade 0 to Grade 9 will have access to a wide variety of specially selected fiction, poetry and grammar books as well as comics and an Encyclopaedia. The expanded school container library will benefit an additional 22 students from the Adult Based Literacy (ABET) classes held at the school weekly, as well as over 200 AIDS orphans who attend the daily soup kitchen at the school and listen to story-telling and reading by teachers.
The project began in March 2010 and is due for completion at the end of June 2010.
Outputs
- Two staff members from the Izzi Trust travelled to Ncemaneni on the 24th to 26th February to explain how the SASIX grant works to the school principal, the librarians and the library committee. The implementation schedule was drafted and accepted during this meeting.
- Biblionef was commissioned to provide the library with 975 books, fully covered and stickered
- The Izzi Trust coordinated the trip from Durban to Cape Town for the two librarians to choose appropriate books for the library.
- The librarians choose 53 library resources including posters and puzzles
- Two-thirds of the books chosen are in IsiZulu, while the remaining third are in English and include novels and poetry; History books; and Maths, Science and Computer literacy study guides.
Expenditure
The total budget for this project is R99,900 and R19 900 has been paid.
| Description | Budget | Expenditure |
| Project Coordinator | 10 000 | 10 000 |
| Administrative costs involved in choosing books | 8 000 | - |
| Books | 70 500 | - |
| Transportation of books | 1 500 | - |
| Librarian travel costs | 7 800 | 6 338 |
| Izzi Trust staff travel costs | - | 5 212 |
| Admin | 21 000 | - |
| TOTAL | 99 900 | 21 550 |
The Izzi Trust used the first payment from SASIX to send two librarians from the school to Cape Town to choose books for the library. Although the flights for the librarians cost R1100 more than anticipated, expenses for this trip were generally well managed. The money originally budgeted for the librarians' car rental was not used and was later reallocated to the Coordinating team's travel costs for the team's first visit to Ncemaneni. The R3212 difference in the coordinating team's travelling costs was covered by The Izzi Trust.
Challenges
Initially Izzi Trust anticipated that they would secure approximately 1200 books for the library. However, due to price increases between 2009, when the quote was first submitted, and early 2010, when the librarians chose the books, they were only able to get 975 books.
Some of the books ordered from Biblionef were not available at the Biblionef warehouse and had to be ordered directly from the publishers. This fact has delayed the delivery of books, which will happen in June 2010.
Monitoring and evaluation
Once the books chosen by Ncemaneni Combined School's librarians reach the library, the following indicators will be used to measure the successful implementation of this project:
- The library Committee will meet quarterly as to discuss arising issues such as loss, damage, repairs and possible increases of the library collection. Minutes of these meeting will be provided to SASIX.
- An activity report will be submitted, detailing the monthly site visits undertaken by the Izzi Trust and the other members of the library committee.
- A report summarising the library usage records by sex and book category will be submitted
- Once the project has been fully implemented, school results of a selected sample of learners in language subjects will be monitored and compared against results in previous years in order to establish the impact of the enlarged library.
- Course results by ABET students will also be assessed and compared to previous years’ results.
Conclusions
The lack of resources is one of the biggest barriers to education confronted by many South Africans, particularly those living in remote rural areas. This project helps break down this barrier for the learners at Ncemaneni. By opening its doors to ABET students and orphans that attend the drop-in centre, its impact will extend far beyond the school itself and become an important centre of learning for the surrounding community.
