David Strawbridge, Room to Read’s Senior Literacy Specialist, visited the stand-alone and classroom library corner libraries established in project schools to observe the reading activities, have a discussion with school administration, community resource groups and government officials to learn about the impact of libraries. He visited four schools in district Bahawalpur (Govt. Boys High School Arabic Bindra, Govt. Girls Elementary School Bindra, Govt. Elementary School 5/BC and Govt. Girls Elementary School Gull Dera) and two schools in district Lahore (GBMS Muslim Colony Rajgarah and GGES Ichra No.2), unfortunately, he was unable to visit more schools due to school closure as a precautionary measure for pink eye infection.

During the visit to each school, he was briefed about the schools and the impact of libraries on the children i.e., increased readability, children’s motivation along with challenges faced at initial stages. 

During his visits to schools various reading activities were observed in different classes as per the libraries timetable of each respective school. After the reading activities, students were also involved in an interactive discussion with David sharing favorite books, what children like about those books and how many times they checked out their favorite books.

During brief discussions, teachers also shared the noticeable changes in student-teacher relationship, improved readability and awareness of various reading levels of children. David also had productive discussions with the Community Resource Group members regarding their interest in the libraries, co-creation of solutions for challenges faced and strategies to sustain the libraries. 

I conclusion David left the following remarks in one of our schools GGES Ichra No.2:

“It was a pleasure visiting your school and seeing the efforts and commitments you are making to bring the joy of reading to all children and their parents. Thank you so much.  David Strawbridge -RtR”

Meeting with Government Officials: 

The district teams in both districts arranged the meetings with District Education Authorities with participants including CEO’s, DEO’s, DDEO’s and AEO’s who appreciated the efforts of RtR and ITA for establishment and provision of continuous support in libraries. During the discussion the government officials emphasized the establishment of libraries in other government schools as well.  

An online meeting was held between David, the PLP team and QAED where the teachers’ training methodology and process was discussed. Furthermore, the days for the library management and library period training were discussed. 

A meeting was held between the Additional Secretary Education (B&P) Mr. Qaiser Rasheed, Section officer Mr. Asim Cheema, Saba Saeed, Farah Shah and Talha Iftikhar in his office on 29th September 2023 to discuss the implementation of the Reading hour in Punjab. Teachers training by QAED and impact evaluation by CLC. The additional secretary appreciated the efforts by ITA-RtR.