Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find out how the state of secondary school libraries affects students’ academic achievement in the Buea municipality. The objective was: The state of secondary school and its effects on student’s academic achievement; The research question was; what is the relationship between the state of school libraries and its effect on students’ academic performance?

The sample size of the study consists of 50 students that are male and female drawn from any class from the three schools, mainly Bilingual Grammar school Molyko, Government High School Bokwango, and Government High School Buea Town. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire. Data were analyzed using different tables and descriptive statistics.

The findings reveal that there is a significant relationship between the state of secondary school libraries and academic achievements and that if materials like textbooks as well as technological equipment’s like laptops, internet connections are provided as well in the library, and the librarian being an educated person will play a great role in the student’s academic performance.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The library is one of the most important motivators because it assists students in achieving their academic performance. Most of the libraries in Cameroon secondary schools are either not having enough and recent textbooks to assist students to achieve their aims or educational goals.

Most libraries are not accessible (UNESCO, 2008) to students due to the small and unconducive reading environment. Better still, most librarians are less educated and trained to assist students while in the library (UNESCO, 2008). Thus, this makes the state of the library to be very poor.

This chapter introduces the state of secondary libraries and their effects on students’ academic achievement around Buea municipality and it focuses on the background of the study (Historical and contextual background), statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, objectives of the study (general objectives and specific objectives), research question (general research questions and specific research questions), the significance of the study, the scope of the study (geographical scope and contextual scope and operation definition of teams).

Historical Background

Equal education, (UNESCO, 2008)  referred to the school register of needs which in 1997 sounded a warning about the state of public school’s libraries when it is estimated that eight out of twelve million fearers did not have an access to libraries (UNESCO, 2008) cited a survey done by humanitarian a research council in 1999, which reported that only 32% of schools go the on-site library.

Many of these libraries were shut down as they had no dedicated librarians and the teachers in charge were busy teaching. The survey noted that 50% of independent schools had a well-equipped libraries staffs by professionals (Hart and Zinn, 2007, P23) Zinn’s study of trained school librarians (2009 P29) showed that in schools ranging in size from 750-15000 learners, no librarian held more than 2000books. The school or classroom library, however “cited most often as the source of reading materials” for an adding program.

The importance to teaching and learning of the provisions of adequate instructional facilities for education cannot be over-emphasized. The saying that “teaching is losing parable from learning” is that teachers do the teaching to make the students learn, but students can learn without their teachers.

According to Akande (1985), learning can occur through one’s interaction with one’s environment. The environment here refers to libraries that are available to facilitate student learning outcomes this includes equipped libraries (Farrant 1991; Farombi 1998).

According to Obi (1992) facilities constitute a strategic factor in organizational functioning. This is so because they determine to a very large extent the smooth functioning of any social organization or system including education. They further stated that their availability, adequacy relevance, influence, efficiency, and high productivity.

In his world, Farombi opted that the wealth of nation or society could determine its quality of education in that land, emphasizing that a society that is wealthy will establish good schools with quality teachers, learning infrastructures that with such, students may learn with case thus, bring about good academic’s performance.

Also, Balogun (1982) submitted that no effective program can exist without equipment for teaching. This is so he because libraries enable the learners to develop problem-solving skills and attitudes. In this contribution, Ajuyi and Oganyemi (1990) reiterated that, when libraries are provided to meet the relative needs of a school’s system, students will not only have access to the reference materials mentioned by the teacher but the individual students will also learn at their own paces, thus leading to overall academic performance.

Although the large majority of studies support the case of linking the state of school libraries those that do not one such study conduction by Tarr and Sinclair- Tarr (2006) in California did not show that libraries have a clear positive impact. There was only a small statistically significant effect, both positive and negative, suggesting that the overall state of the school library and its effect was negligible.

Contextual Background

The extent to which students learning outcomes could to enhanced, depending on their school location. The structure of their school, availability of instructional materials and accessories. But most importantly it depends on the state of their libraries. It is believed that libraries do a great job and contribute a lot to a positive outcome for students in the teaching and learning process. Better still, it is believed that the educational level of the librarian has a great role to play as for as the state of libraries are concerned technologies and also of the library have enough books to support student’s academic achievements.

A library assists students in providing relevant materials to students and solving student problems. In most cases, most of these books are outdated and could not provide solutions to students and most often students are trusted because they cannot be able to find the required books to read, for instance, situating and sorting out books it’s a problem for some students and as such negativity affected their achievement.

In the nutshell, if libraries are accessible (have space) to students, the library has enough books and the librarian is educated has a great role to play to foster student’s academic achievement for this reasons, for books not to be in the school libraries of most secondary schools is a problem, absent of recent textbooks is also a problem.

The fact most librarians are not educated and finally the fact there is no or inadequate technological equipment like computers to assist students is also a problem all these stated may to serve the extent contributes to poor academic performance in most schools of the Buea municipality.

According to Ifla, 2016, under UNESCO, which is often used by the government to determine how librarians should be now and operate in Cameroon. Although the library is the core of the existence of most library activities. Regional and national literacy goals and efforts are systematically connected to libraries. According to Shrestha and Frolak 2015, and Ifla 2016, the government came up with series of policies controlling libraries which are as follows;

Libraries should be in a safe place whereby students at the regional and international levels should meet and learn.

Better still; libraries should have comfortable and colorful furniture to attract students so that they spend more time in the library.

Provision of digital services for students to play interactive reading games.

Another policy put in place by the government is to identify, create and provide recent textbooks and resources to meet the teachers’ objectives.

According to Lopez E. Caspe and Mac William L. 2016, concerning governmental policies about libraries in Cameroon pass through the ministry of secondary education that at the haggling of every school and academic year in all school libraries should be changed. This means that the school heads should equip the library with up-to-date books to meet up the overall goal and objectives of the year.

In addition to this, the public libraries and museums act 1964, gives local authorities the duty to provide services and the culture secretary the duty to oversee the services they provide. The public lending right act of 1979 gives authors the right to payment from a central fund when their books are borrowed. More so, from 2010 to 2015, library services which are new by local authorities provide free services that empower people with access to resource lending books.

Statement Of The Problem  

The education of a child is supposed to be team work between the school, family and the society. Therefore, for a child to be able to succeed each of these parties must play its role well. My problem is that the state of secondary school libraries is very bad.

It is believed that most students in secondary schools have no access to the library due to lack or small space for students to study and as such contributed negatively to their academic performance. More so, most libraries lack textbooks that are up to date as well as a lack of technology in most secondary schools to facilitate students achieve their academic goals. Thus this study seeks to investigate the state of secondary school libraries and their effects on students’ academic performance around the Buea Municipality.

Purpose Of The Study 

The purpose of this study is to investigate the state of school libraries and their effect on students’ academic performance.

Objectives Of The Study

General Objectives

The state of school libraries and its effects on students’ academic performance

Specific Objective of the Study

This study specifically is aimed at finding out;

1. To find out how the availability of textbooks in the secondary school’s libraries affects students’ academic performance
2. To also find out how technology has affected students’ academic performance
3. To find out the educational level of school librarians affects students’ academic achievements

Research Questions

General Research Questions 

What is the relationship between the state of school libraries and its effects on students’ academic performance?

Specific Research Questions

1. To examine the extent to which the availability of recent textbooks affects students’ academic performance?
2. To show how the level of technology in school libraries in most secondary schools affects students’ academic performance?
3. To show how the level of education of librarians in most libraries affects student academic achievement in most secondary schools?

Further Readings

THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL LIBRARY IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BUEA