Artists give school libraries facelift

It is rainy weekend. Some artists have a fever, muscle pain and headache, a common rainy season disease. They seem not to care and visit a middle school in Insein Township to paint murals on the walls of school library as they have planned ahead.

Sipping their hot cup of tea to beat sickness, they start to draw murals depicting a rainbow, butterflies on flowers, an animal reading and a piece of cheese (animation) carrying books.

“They are volunteer artists, drawing murals that intrigue children with the aim to attract children to visit the library,” said U Maung Maung Soe from Save the Library that helps organise artists to draw murals.
It is the part of ‘Let’s Read’ project launched by Room to Read, an international partner together with the Ministry of Education, Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation (MBAPF), Myanmar Library Association, community librarians and Information and Public Relations Department librarians.
The project started with seven elementary and middle school libraries in Yangon, 10 schools in Mandalay and three schools in Maubin, Ayeyarwady Region.
In Yangon, drawing murals has been done in three schools in Tarmwe township by arts graduates and amateur artists. The remaining four schools in Insein township are being painted since the third week of August.
“To make students to visit libraries needs visual attraction such as room setting, attractive book shelves and wall murals that will inspire children to re-draw. School libraries in different countries have such murals on the walls,” said U Maung Maung Soe.

Aside from murals of rainbows and animal readings, artists try to paint traditional things to suit Myanmar culture. It takes from four days to seven days to complete painting a library and about 15 artists volunteer in Yangon.
“Artists are often asked by students when will the libraries open,” he said.
These 20 libraries are supposed to open in October.
“Most of the school libraries are not functional and not well-equipped at the moment,” said Dr Thant Thaw Kaung, executive director of MBAPF.
Their vision for school libraries in Myanmar is to become well-equipped child friendly libraries with trained librarians.
“In order to become child friendly libraries, the libraries must have fresh books, attractive furniture and a separate library period per week for students to spend time at the libraries,” Dr Thant Thaw Kaung said.
In other words, their vision is to improve the habit of reading and by doing so students will enjoy reading.  Eventually, a library-going culture will be revitalized in our country.
He said a dedicated library period must be present at the school for every class.  During this period, four types of literacy promotion activity will be conducted by teachers.  Reading aloud and shared reading will be emphasized to lower primary students and pair read and independent reading will be trained to upper primary students.
“At the same time, we will encourage parents to read together with their children at home.  Therefore, in our pilot libraries, students will be allowed to borrow one book for 3 days so that they can read together with parents.  Parents shall support the reading of their loved ones.  With this, a true library culture will be reborn in our country,” Dr Thant Thaw Kaung said.
“We are optimistic for this project to roll out from current 20 pilot schools to hundreds of schools in coming years in Myanmar,” he said.