Development of 18 learning resources centres at government schools

Approval of a guide identifying the roles of concerned personnel in the educational field

Development of 18 learning resources centres at government schools

The Ministry of Education is developing 18 centres for learning resources in government schools for the current academic year 2016-2017, as part of a plan that will include development of centres at all 408 schools.

The Ministry completed developing 7 centres last year and approved a guide relating to centres for learning resources in the UAE, which aims at enhancing the philosophy of learning centres in accordance with the aspirations of the Emirati School, and acts as a main support for the reading and innovation strategies focused at producing readers and innovators fully aware of this age’s requirements, in order to achieve the 2021 vision.

Sharifa Al Moussa, Director of Learning Resources & Educational Solutions Department at the Ministry of Education, stated that the Ministry ensured the provision of 20 thousand books, ranging from stories and novels, cultural and scientific encyclopaedias in both Arabic and English under 729 titles which have been distributed to schools in Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain and Ras Al Khaimah, in addition to providing schools with audio, visual and electronic learning resources. 

She indicated that the guide identifies and allocates roles of concerned personnel in the educational field, and presents some models, examples and applications centred around best international practises on how to activate the centre within the educational process, by proposing a range of activities and events to be applied in the centre in coordination and cooperation with specialists in learning resources centres and teachers.

She noted that the LRC guide for State schools presents the services offered by learning resources centres to targeted groups, in order to achieve the objectives and mission of the centre in supporting the educational process. This is in addition to presenting the most important international and professional standards in the field approved by international bodies, including standards and specifications of buildings, furniture, equipment and applications, along with the appointment of those concerned with developing, establishing and updating learning resources centres.

She indicated that the guide shows the daily working steps within learning resources centres by identifying the administrative steps and procedures to regulate workflow, and also familiarizes the educational community on the duties, responsibilities and roles of specialists at learning resources centres in activating the centre, organizing activities, and utilization of available resources and groups.

Sharifa Mousa explained that the mission of learning resources centres is to support the general objectives of the educational process, to support the curriculum and strengthen its main role within the educational process whereby they become a centre for research, discovery and creativity, in addition to being an ideal learning environment for instilling cultural values and developing observation and communication skills, self-confidence, self-directed learning skills, self-motivation, and evaluation skills among learners.

Accomplishing Duties

Mousa pointed out that the LRC guide for State schools targets LRC specialists, since they constitute those directly working in learning resources centres who bear the responsibility of activating the role of learning centres and guarantee its contribution to the educational process, along with promoting services offered by the centre in assisting the school community, whereby specialists work on creating a motivating environment for students at learning centres and set plans to produce pioneers in research and discovery.

This comes in addition to their responsibility for other tasks such as; partaking in the implementation of school plans for competitions relating to educational material and determining requirements of the learning resources centre from books, educational materials and equipment and arranging for them through execution of students questionnaires to identify the type of novels and books they wish to avail in their libraries; planning LRC educational and cultural programs and activities in cooperation with subject teachers; documentation of books and educational materials in the relevant registries with regular updating of the same; as well as classification of assets, preparation of electronic indices in accordance with the LRC operations, activities classification; documentation planning through statistics and records; preparation of periodical reports; execution of teaching programs on library educational skills; research through research tools, and self-learning and training in the use of LRC technologies.