Media Release 30 May 2024 
Building on Structured Literacy: The Need to Fund School Libraries

The School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (SLANZA) is concerned by the absence of funding in today’s budget announcement for essential school library resources to address the falling literacy rates in Aotearoa New Zealand.  

“Whilst we applaud the allocation of funds to structured literacy programmes, we are concerned that without access to school libraries and specialised librarians to promote and encourage reading for pleasure, the potential of literacy programmes will always be limited.” says Sasha Eastwood, SLANZA Interim President.

“Today’s funding announcement is an encouraging first step in supporting our ākonga to learn to read, however, school libraries are essential to ensure that the building blocks of structured literacy are strengthened by developing the joy of reading, increasing reading comprehension, empathy, and the capacity to learn.” continues Sasha.  

SLANZA urges the government to mandate that every student have access to a well-resourced school library, funded by the Ministry of Education, and staffed by a specialised school librarian. This way all students will have equitable access to the resources needed to achieve their reading and learning potential.  

The Education Minister has previously stated, “our education system should be the great equaliser. Your means should not determine your destiny.” SLANZA would argue that school libraries are the greatest equaliser, in that equitable access to books and reading for pleasure is crucial to every student’s literacy and learning success.
 
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Contact – Sasha Eastwood, SLANZA Interim President – [email protected] 

Registrations for the SLANZA Module #17: Gender and Sexuality in School Libraries module of the Connected Librarians course are open from today Tuesday 28 May 2024 and will close on Friday 7 June 2024. 
 
Here is the link on the SLANZA website to register: 

This course is for anyone who would like to explore gender issues as they relate to our school library practice. In a librarian workforce that is predominantly female in Aotearoa schools, we have a responsibility to be informed about all gender issues and how we can ensure our collections and reading advisory are diverse and appropriate for all our students and staff.
This course is a repeat of the course run in 2021 and 2022, so you don't need to repeat it if you have already completed one of those courses.
What to expect in this course?
On successful course completion, learners will be able to:

• understand what gender is and what this means for our students and our practice
• investigate examples of gender stereotyping by looking at book covers, book genres and our own reading advisory expectations
• recognise sexism by looking at our own biases, dealing with others biases and gendering of books 
• evaluate the diversity in our collections and collection management practice
• understand our role in providing sexuality and puberty information
• understand our role in ensuring age-appropriate material and how we feel about censorship

The course will be starting on Monday 10 June and finishes on Friday 28 June 2024.
This course is designed by New Zealand school librarians, for school librarians - for anyone who is ready and willing to learn and try new things and share their thoughts and learning with others. You can work at your own pace, in your own time and network with other school librarians. For those school librarians working in schools on their own, this is invaluable.

The course is only available and free for SLANZA members.

Please visit the Online PD page on our SLANZA website for further information and to register. Or register here.