Brisbane, October 25, 2010. A recent post on The Hub: Campaign for Quality School Libraries in Australia has quoted Softlink in its argument that qualified teacher librarians should be required for Victorian primary schools.
Georgia Phillips, co-founder of The Hub, states that very few primary schools are staffed with adequately qualified teacher librarians.
"Recent research has shown that only 13% of Victorian primary schools are staffed with qualified teacher librarians. This is a decline from 55% of teacher librarians employed in schools in 1983. Many schools employ library technicians or librarians who do not have teaching qualifications to cut down on costs. 12% of libraries are managed by people with no formal qualifications of any kind, including volunteer parents," she said.
"In NSW, all schools are officially staffed with teachers who are also trained as librarians."
For the Government's Inquiry into school libraries and teacher librarians in Australian schools, Softlink's submission was a study that showed teacher librarians making a significant difference to student learning.
"Softlink compared school budgets with their NAPLAN Reading Literacy scores, and found a significant positive correlation between the number of school librarians employed in the school and its literacy scores," said Nathan Godfrey, Chief Operating Officer of Softlink International.
"As a result of this research, Softlink's own product development is focused on using the school library system to provide additional guidance to teachers on student literacy levels."
These results reflect those from over 60 international studies - which confirm that in addition to improving literacy levels, a qualified teacher librarian can increase writing, spelling, vocabulary, reading scores and in turn, academic results.
Georgia urges the Victorian government to take the initiative in ensuring correct staffing of schools.
"If the Victorian government truly cares about literacy and student achievement, they must require and support the staffing of their school libraries with qualified teacher librarians," said Georgia.
The Report of the Federal Inquiry is still pending.
Click here to read The Hub's media release.