By Malachi Motano
Isiolo Town Library has received a consignment of 3,500 revision textbooks worth about Sh300,000 courtesy of Desai Memorial Foundation.
The donated books, mainly revision textbooks for grades one to eight have been approved by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and parents and schools have been advised to ensure their children take advantage of the available resources.
According to the area Senior Assistant County Commissioner, Annabel Gitonga, who received the donation and on behalf of the County Commissioner, Herman Shambi, such donations encourage pastoral communities to embrace a reading culture.
The Chief Librarian at the facility, Gitonga thanked the foundation for considering Isiolo County for assistance among others.
At the same time, another consignment of 3,000 textbooks was donated to Korbesa Primary School in Merti Sub-county, while plans were underway to distribute more books to other local schools in the coming weeks.
The Town library which has a capacity of 250 users at any given time has been reduced to half the number in adherence to the Ministry of Health Covid-19 guidelines.
Also present at the event were the County Director of Education, Mr Hussein Koriyow, and Chair to the Board of Library Management, together with some of its members.
During the occasion, political leaders were challenged to help the community embrace a reading culture for students at an early age by facilitating educational initiatives such as upgrading the library to accommodate more users and construction of recreational centers.
The Government was also challenged to initiate mobile libraries in the remote parts of the County where students are greatly disadvantaged in accessing learning materials, owing to unavailability of the requisite infrastructural development.
