Previously, the Mananga Islamic Elementary School library was not a library frequented by students. Teachers sometimes had to force students to go to the library. When they did get to the library, they just flipped through the pages of the book and then put it back.
There were no bookshelves at that time. The books were piled in the cupboard and were not in accordance with the basic education level. According to the Principal of Mananga Islamic Elementary School, Muh. Subhan Satirando, the books were densely written, and the language tended to be too difficult for elementary school children, especially early grade students, to digest. For example, there were encyclopedias and history books.
Additionally, there were no programs or activities carried out in the library. The librarian was limited to serving those who borrowed books—that is, if there were any.
“All of us (principals, teachers, and librarians) do not yet understand what the tasks of a librarian are. We thought that they are only to manage borrowing books, or simply opening or closing the library,” said Subhan.
This made students reluctant to visit the library, and their reading interest was very low. In class, teachers did not nurture a reading habit. They only focused on delivering lessons according to the Lesson Plan (Rencana Pelaksanaan Pembelajaran, or RPP). Meanwhile, at home, parents did not have time to assist their children to read. According to Subhan, parents leave their children’s educational matters completely to schools so that they can meet the needs of their other children. All of this contributes to the students’ lower reading skills.
Being an INOVASI partner school through the Child-Friendly Library program with Taman Bacaan Pelangi (TBP) or the Rainbow Reading Garden, Mananga Islamic Elementary School is starting to clean itself up. The library building has been renovated. The walls were painted, and interesting pictures were hung. TBP provided the materials they needed while the process was voluntarily carried out by the parents.
In addition, the principal, teachers, and education personnel received 10 days of training. They learned how to manage a good library, including ranking and placing books. Armed with their training, the librarians and teachers have been ranked and placed more than 1,000 books provided by TBP.
“The knowledge that I get from training is a relatively new thing for me. It turns out that the book is not ranked based on class (student) but the number of words/sentences, pictures, and level of difficulty,” he said.
When reading on their own or in pairs, children are allowed to choose any book. However, if the selected book is not suited to the student’s ability, it is not recommended for the teacher or librarian to directly reprimand but use a five-finger system. The teacher asks the student to read a few words or sentences and records the number of times the student makes a mistake while reading.
One or two mistakes means that the student can continue with that book or books at a lower level. On the other hand, if there were absolutely no mistakes, the student is invited to read books at a higher level.
“Since, there were some mistakes while you were reading, let’s just take this book from this rank,” said Subhan while giving an example of how to get students to choose books according to their reading ability.
Mananga Islamic Elementary School has 13 study groups (rombongan belajar, or rombel) and each group has a weekly schedule for a mandatory library visit. The duration of the visit is one lesson hour, or 35 minutes, and is conducted during class hours. During mandatory visits, teachers are required to assist their students. Each week, the reading activities are performed differently so that students do not get bored
In terms of administration, librarians are equipped with three types of books. A visitor book contains information about students who visit outside of the mandatory visiting hours. A reading activity book contains a list of students who attended the mandatory visiting hours. A third book records the books that the students borrow. Subhan said that the borrowing activity has been running smoothly, although, at first, the librarian was overwhelmed because the students returned their books at the same time.
Now, librarians have posted a borrowing and returning schedule in the library. Class teachers, who assist their students during visiting hours, are also obliged to assist in the process of borrowing books. In addition, other teachers, and even Subhan himself as the school principal, have a weekly schedule to help record the process of borrowing and returning of books.
All the students are required to borrow books, and the duration is three days. Based on Subhan’s observations, there are students who do not read the books they borrow, but more often, the students do read the books.
“I am neighbors with several students. I see those who don’t read (the books they the borrow), but there are also those who often read in front of their house,” he said.
To make sure that students read the books, teachers ask them to talk about the books they have borrowed. Teachers usually target students who are suspected of not reading. If a student has difficulty, the teacher only asks what pictures the student sees in the book or what the book is about. This activity is part of the creating a habit before the Teaching and Learning Activities (Kegiatan Belajar Mengajar, or KBM) takes place.
This arrangement and management of the library like this makes children excited to visit. During visiting hours, they race to the library.
“They ran while asking their friends, ‘Come on! Come on! Let’s go to the library!” Subhan said, imitating the students’ expressions. Even outside of mandatory visiting hours, students regularly go to the library and read.
This has made it far easier for teachers to be more focused on delivering material during learning because improving students’ reading skills is mostly carried out in the library. The efforts made by Mananga Islamic Elementary School are bearing fruit. One of their students won third place in the annual reading competition held by the local Education Office in November 2019. The competition not only showed the student’s reading fluency but also the student’s understanding of what she or he had read. What is more interesting is that student was still in his or her first semester when she or he participated in the competition.
