Multipurpose community centres

Multipurpose community centres, also known as MPCCs are government initiatives aimed predominantly at meeting the information needs of the people residing in historically disadvantaged and marginalised rural communities. Snyman (2007:125) reiterates that:

“Ideally, community participation should form the basis of such a centre, which has to meet people’s information needs by providing relevant services. The aim of MPCCs is to empower the poorest and most disadvantaged communities with access to the government and non-government and services”.

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MPCCs are also aimed at disseminating information and rolling out government services to the people. Rabali (2005:4) points out that:

“MPCCs are one-stop, integrated community development centres that encourage community participation and offer services relevant to people's needs. They aim to empower the poor and disadvantaged through access to information, services and resources from government, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), parastals and business', enabling them to engage in government programmes for the improvement of their lives. The vision behind the implementation of MPCCs is to provide every South African citizen with access to information and services, within five minutes of their place of residence. Multipurpose Community Centres are being set up across the country to better the quality of life for every South African citizen through integrated and accessible service delivery”.

Due to a lack of well-resourced and functional school libraries in the majority of schools in South Africa, it was also the post-apartheid government’s plan to roll out school library and information services through the MPCCs. Unfortunately, providing school LIS through MPCCs failed from onset because of their inadequacies in the country. Snyman (2007:128) adds that:

“The vision of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) was to establish one multipurpose community centre per municipality across South Africa. These ideals have not been fulfilled”.

3.4.9.1 Advantages of the multipurpose community centres

Well-resourced and well-staffed multipurpose community centres have the potential to augment the few, relevant and appropriate library resources in schools. As the collection in the multipurpose community centres can be wide, teachers and learners can be exposed to equitable collection. As multipurpose community centres are ideally managed by the qualified staff, teachers and learners can therefore be assisted also to access information from online databases worldwide.

3.4.9.2 Disadvantages of the multipurpose community centres

It should be noted that there are few multipurpose community centres in South Africa. This poses a serious challenge because the majority of teachers and learners are unable to access information in these centres. However, in Limpopo Province the situation is even worse, particularly in historically disadvantaged rural communities. Stilwell (2009) points out that learners in deep rural communities do not have access to library-based resources, regardless of the attempts by the government to provide such services through multipurpose community centres. Kwake, Ocholla and Adigun (2006) are of the

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opinion that although multipurpose community centres form the backbone of development of communication and the dissemination of information to needy and deprived communities, they lack effective management, well-maintained equipment, relevant information as well as the much advocated access to the Internet. Due to constrained budget in government departments, sufficient funding to procure relevant collections for school curriculum can be problematic. As resources in the multipurpose community centres are exposed to all teachers and learners in various communities, tear and wear can escalate, subsequently more funds will be needed to repair and mend damaged library materials.

3.5 SUMMARY

School libraries are important resource centres to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in schools. Ideally, each school needs to have a central library to meet the curriculum needs of the teachers and learners. In South Africa, the majority of public schools do not have central purpose school libraries due to past apartheid policies and injustices. To bridge the considerable backlog that exists because of the financial constraints experienced by the national Department of Basic Education, and to provide temporary solutions to this problem, the continuum of the school library model gives each school in the country an opportunity to establish and develop a library facility with a view to providing wide-ranging educational resources to support the constructivist and resource- hungrycurriculum. Although not approved, the provincial departments of education are tasked with guiding and assisting schools in choosing appropriate model(s) that will satisfy information needs of teachers and learners to meet resource-based curriculum obligations. They are also expected to assist school committees and communities to implement the mere guidelines to make the different facilities functional. However, lack of an approved school library policy with approved school library models and standards from national Department of Basic Education remains a stumbling block for effective school library developments in the country. In Chapter 4, research methodology of the study is outlined.

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CHAPTER FOUR

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

4.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter outlines the research methods used to obtain data that is relevant for responding to the objectives of this study. The decisions on the research methodology, the instruments, procedures and data collection methods which were used in this study are explained in detail. As research does not take place in a vacuum, the units of analysis, which form the focus of this study, are also discussed.

The aim of this study is to establish the extent to which public high schools in Limpopo are provided with well-resourced and functional school libraries. For the researcher to achieve the above aim, the study was conducted with the following objectives:

4.1.1 To identify the legislation and policy frameworks which support the establishment and development of school libraries,

4.1.2 To identify the library services and programmes that support the curriculum, 4.1.3 To assess the library resources that support the provision of school libraries, 4.1.4 To establish the infrastructure (buildings) to accommodate the library resources, 4.1.5 To establish challenges in establishing and maintaining functional school libraries,

4.1.6 To recommend the relevant and the appropriate school library model for effective and functional school library and information services in Limpopo Province.