The North Georgetown Secondary School (NGSS) yesterday launched its E-library.
The air-conditioned E-library is powered by a solar network, and equipped with a network cabinet and internet access. It was created when former students of NGSS, in observance of the school’s 50th anniversary, and in an effort to give back to their alma mater, agreed to renovate a room at the school to be used as an E-library. They also agreed to donate tablet computers and accessories for the facility.
Rear Admiral (Ret’d) Gary Best, a former student of NGSS, disclosed that the project which was birthed in March is being done in three phases.
According to Best, in phase one, the use of the E-library will be facilitated on-site at the school and will allow up to 25 students at a time to be able to access the database or repository. Phase two, he added, will allow students to access the database from any section of the school and finally, phase three will allow students to access the database remotely.
The database will contain past papers, books, textbooks and other educational material that will be relevant to students at the school from Grade 7 (form one) to Grade 11 (form five), a Ministry of Education (MoE) release noted
The feature address at the launching ceremony was delivered by Minister of Education, Dr Nicolette Henry. In her remarks she noted that E-libraries are very relevant to education delivery in today’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) age as they open windows to the world and inspire users to explore, achieve and contribute to improving the quality of life.
“So, the introduction of an E-library at this school is nothing short of remarkable and should be highly commended. Congratulations and well done to all that were instrumental in this process,” Henry said.
She observed that since digital libraries are not confined to a particular space or building and are virtually distributed, they have several advantages.
The Minister acknowledged that it is recognised that through the deployment of ICT within the educational environment and complemented by ready content, the existing delivery, culture and practice of knowledge transfer from traditional memory-based learning to stimulated thinking can be transformed.
“Guyana is indeed on the right path and in the right hands. So the North Georgetown Secondary School is the launching ground for the first ICT school library in this country. Congratulations again to the entire team that birthed this project, the members of the 50th Anniversary Committee, members of the staff and all those instrumental for such a phenomenal step,” Henry said.