NORTH Georgetown Secondary School (NGSS) is now equipped with a fully functioning electronic library, said to be the first of its kind in Guyana, compliments of the school’s alumni.

At the launch ceremony on Wednesday, in the school’s auditorium, Education Minister, Dr. Nicolette Henry, noted that libraries play a vital and central role in shaping the education system in Guyana.

And giving the ministry’s mandate to eliminate illiteracy, modernise education and strengthen tolerance, the opening of the e-library “is nothing short of remarkable and should be highly commended,” the minister said.

“The presence of libraries in our society has often benefitted the academia and students at various levels, nursery all the way to tertiary institutions… e-libraries are very relevant to education delivery in today’s ICT age, as they open up windows to the world and inspire all of us to explore, achieve and contribute to improving the quality of our lives… a digital state will trigger economic transformation,” Henry posited.

The minister told the packed auditorium that a large part of this country’s development is linked to what is happening in the classrooms and the schools. As such, the ministry has themed education month “Education – the key to national development”.

“Therefore promoting reading and school libraries is critical to eliminating illiteracy. Guyana needs high quality education system, with globally competitive literacy and numeracy standards. An intensive effort is therefore needed to promote reading in our school and develop reading skills… Guyana is indeed on the right path and in the right hands. And so NGSS is the launching ground for the first ICT school library in this country,” Henry said moments before declaring the new library officially open.

Shedding some light on this venture for the school, NGSS past student and Coordinator of NGSS 50, Rear Admiral (rt’d) Gary Best said the e-library is a donation, a gift worth some $10.7M, to commemorate the school’s 50th anniversary.

The project was a collaborative effort between NGSS Guyana, NGSS North America (NA), the Education Ministry and the National Data Management Authority.

NGSS NA provided the tablets and accessories for the e-library while NGSS Guyana built the space, Internet via fibre-optic cable, network connection and education content.
He also pointed out that NGSS NA, over a period of one year, hosted fund-raising activities to offset the expenses for the donation to the school.

Best said the first phase of the project caters for 25 students at a time to have access to the library but phase two will allow remote access any part of the school, on a tablet. In the third phase, students will be able to dial in from their tablets at home and have access to the network of information.

Best also shared that the room will run for 24 hours and the aim is to give it a feel and appearance like an Apple or Samsung store. This, he hopes will aid in encouraging the students to continue improving their performance.

Best told Guyana Chronicle that he believes the world has gone past the digital age and the e-library for NGSS is keeping abreast with the advancing world.

The tablets have all the past papers for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations for the students to use as practice.

However, Best noted that the e-library is not limited to the use of CSEC students, but rather the entire school.

The students of North Georgetown Secondary whom this newspaper spoke to all expressed much anticipation that the e-library has come onstream.

“Well you know that we are in the digital age and most of us young people we prefer using digital devices for everything. And when we have homework and assignments and we have to do research and so on, to go look in several books to read and look for what we want is like a deterrent in the research process. So now that we have this e-library, I believe our students will be more encouraged to do their work, because the process is appealing and relevant to us,” the student said.