LACK OF LIBRARIES IN SCHOOLS
Ilustraion: Studio Permanent
Reading books, be it novels, poems or others, is the only way to travel in the world of imagination and also to gain new knowledge. But what if the desire to read the books we desire is limited?
As a passionate reader of books – which enables me to find the best version of myself and make me forget all the worries of real life as long as I’m reading – I find it difficult to find new titles in the country where I live. I am convinced that there are many other lovers of reading like me who encounter difficulties to find the books that they have the desire or obligation to read. This issue is especially serious in my city Prizren, even though we have the city library, again the lack of literature is present.
In a report of the Statistics Agency of Kosovo, in the year 2020, in the measurements of statistics for culture, the results for city libraries were also presented. Prizren in 2020 had only 4 city libraries and close to 400 new book titles entered during the year.
Contributing to this issue is the lack of school libraries in general, and those that do have libraries are not well stocked.
“Many libraries in Kosovo are poorly maintained and lack a sufficient supply of books, while others are closed due to the low budget”, writes Dafina Halili, in an article entitled “Every child in Kosovo deserves access to books”, published last year in Kosovo 2.0. Dafina deals with the need to supply schools with books as well as the initiative The Library Project Kosova (TLPK), for the establishment of libraries within educational institutions.
However, based on personal experience, in my school where students are required to read a book every month, finding them in some cases is impossible or there is a shortage of books and most of them are damaged and not able to be read.
The books that I was obliged to read were very old or translated by authors from different countries of the world which are not found in the city library or are damaged or have not been returned at all by those who have received them and the library management does nothing about damaged or unreturned books. If we decide to buy them, their prices are not suitable for everyone’s budget. If I talk about the school library since I am in a private school, we have a library but not all schools in Prizren have, or face a great lack of books. My school’s library is big, but the books there are mostly in German or English, and we don’t have to read most of them.
This comes with a book buying solution but not everyone has the opportunity to buy a book every month or in my case I read 3 or more books in a month. One of the best forms that would have contributed to the improvement of the situation, and would also motivate young men and women to read more, would be if school libraries were more attractive. So, school libraries should be supplied with titles based on the demands and preferences of students. While I consider that another challenge that contributes to obstacles for students to read is the translation of books into Albanian. Not all of us know other languages and not all of us have the same access to other materials we need for personal growth
This is a very big problem for the youth of Kosovo because we are the future of Kosovo, we are the ones who must have a bright and wise mind, so say as my Latin professor always tells us: “Reading is the key of knowledge”
About the author: Ariona Makica, 15 years old from Prizren, attends high school.
This project is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports
