Leena Pre and Primary School is located in Morogoro Municipality in eastern Tanzania, the school was established in the 2000s by the NGO called SAWA WANAWAKE TANZANIA means Equal Women Tanzania established in 1998 one of aims is to facilitate a child-friendly learning and learning environment.
Leena Pre and Primary Schools currently has a total of 276 pupils students among them with disabilities are 26, for more than two decades it has never been an electronic Library for teaching students in digital form, but has now officially launched an e-Library with digital equipment costing USD 14,810.36 equivalent to Tanzanian Shillings TZS. 34,389,654.40 whereas for Korea it is worth KRW 21,035,530.
School Manager and Director of The Sawa Wanawake Tanzania which sponsors Leena School, Herreni Nkalang’ango, speaking at the launch of the e-Library at the school, said electronic Library will be used to provide Inclusive Education to children with disabilities and those without disabilities.
Herreni Nkarang’ango said “this means that children with disabilities and those without disabilities can learn together and play together, their learning becomes easier than they are isolated themselves, you know when a child tells them you see this Heart and then sees it with the Eyes, growing more conscious, I think more children would be interested in coming here”
KORAIL Tanzania resident Director, James Lee who attended the launch of the e-Library, as well as coming up with gifts of clothes, books and other materials for students to study as a bounty of South Korean Railways workers in Tanzania said,
“In Korea, all schools use the electronic Library from young children to university, our country supports Tanzania so that children can get quality education from e-libraries, all children will be connected to online and will be able to watch videos, educational photos and books, so they get a better understanding from the e-Library”.
HOW THE e-LIBRARY FACILITATES INCLUSIVE EDUCATION.
The United Nations is pushing for inclusive education so that no one is left behind even if they have a disability like Azizi Ally, a special needs student at the school, her mother, Zena Juma, said, “My son is studying in Sixth Grade next year when he enters Class Seven, he has a hand and foot disability even his writing is also a problem, but this Library will help him better learn with technological equipment because before this library I had so much trouble writing that you if you are not a teacher find it difficult to understand what he wrote in notebooks.
Isack Evans, a Sixth Grade student at Leena Pre and Primary School, said. “This Library being brought here gives us so many advantages, we will be reading easily because there are so many things we were missing in reading and learning like Mathematical Formulas and Scientific Systems.”
MOROGORO REGIONAL GOVERNMENT ABOUT ENCOURAGE e-LIBRARIES.
Morogoro Region through the Department of Education has been providing training in various schools, educating teachers on the importance of having an e-Library and how to use it to teach and educate students and as time goes on awareness has increased among teachers, parents and guardians.
Morogoro Regional Academic Officer Turo Fundi attended the launch of the e-Library at Leena Pre and Primary School, speaking on behalf of the Regional Commissioner, Fatuma Mwasa urged teachers and leaders of Leena School to take care of Mktaba facilities.
“In the provision of quality education which is the government’s year-to-year objective Information and Communication Technology Education makes learning easier and attracts our students to be more motivated to learn, these friends of KORAIL have supported the government’s efforts, I urge teachers to take care of computers and other equipment so that they can be used for longer,” Turo said.
MATERIALS AVAILABLE WITHIN THE e-LIBRARY AT THE LEENA SCHOOL.
During an interview with Tanzania Kids Time after the launch of the e-Library Teacher of Sign Languages and Head of ICT, Leena School Samuel Mwaleni mentioned the materials inside the e-Library Room, interviewed by Taanzania Kids Time to discuss the initial situation before we had an Internet Library she said “before that we had weak equipment as we had only one PC carrying up to twenty students”
Teacher Samuel added that “we have now introduced Ten Computers connected with Internet, we have Cameras and so children will learn to use Cameras, we have a Smart Tv that is directly connected to the Internet, we have a Smart Tv that is directly connected to the Internet, the Teacher can prepare a lesson and all the children learn even if the Teacher is absent the other important thing is that our computers have special programmes for teaching a Child even when they are alone, we have ten Laptops for students in Pre-Primary, First and Second Class only.
Importantly also the Library Room has a protection device for assessing students’ attention when they learn especially when the Teacher is not with them, he is able to see the Library room and watch what the students are learning, to know who is there and who has not come, as well as through exercises as has been done properly.
TANZANIA e-LIBRARY SERVICES BOARD.
The Tanzania Library Services Board (TLSB) is a public institution under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
The institute was established by Act of Parliament No. 39 of 1963 known as the Tanganyika Library Services Board.
TLSB is the founder of the Tanzania electronic Library, one of whose mandates is to manage the contents of textbooks and extracurriculars and provide certification for use in electronic and Regular Libraries, through the Tanzania Institute of Education.
Project Manager at The e-Library at Tanzania Institute of Education, Christian Mtavangu was interviewed by telephone by Tanzania Kids Time to explain how they planned to distribute the programme nationwide.
Manager Christian Mtavangu said, “We conducted an educational tour of the importance of electronic Libraries in seven Regions of Mainland Tanzania including Morogoro Region, further efforts will continue for 2023 in other Regions including Islands of Zanzibar”.
Christiana Mtavangu, speaking on how students can benefit from learning and reading in the Online Library, said, “Students are able to read on their own by watching lesson sessions organized and teachers learn more and experiment even when they are at home with their parents using them, but it also makes it easier to access timely reading and learning books from online, it’s easy to download them and they will be easily mastered.”
By Hamad Rashid-Morogoro.