Edutopia - February/March 2008 - (Page 29) go gl bal them a measure of independence: “When teachers don’t cover the whole syllabus, you can find a book and read it,” one student told me. “You can use the library for reference and check whether what the teachers have told you is true or false,” another added. As a result, one young woman claimed, “the library has put us in a spirit of studying.” The success of the Kitengesa Library is part of a heartening trend in Uganda. There are now several village libraries in the country, founded either by local people or by interested foreigners working with local colleagues. The libraries have different collections and reach out to their communities in different ways, but the same mission unites them: to enhance education in Uganda by developing a reading culture. In August 2007, a national organization, the Uganda Community Libraries Association, was launched to provide training for librarians and distribute small grants. So far, eighteen institutions have joined UgCLA, a network through which library managers can exchange best practices and foreign organizations can gain access to help village community libraries. UgCLA is associated with an even wider network through Friends of African Village Libraries (FAVL), a registered notfor-profit organization in the United States that began its work in 2002 by setting up libraries in Burkina Faso. In 2006, it developed an East African branch that supports UgCLA and the Kitengesa library, as well as libraries in Tanzania. FAVL is inspired by the vision that libraries in villages throughout Africa will enable rural people to take charge of their own education and will provide a vital infrastructure for educational and developmental innovation. To help develop relationships between individual libraries in Uganda and with other communities internationally, the Ugandan libraries, through UgCLA, can offer placements for volunteers and information about rural life in Africa, while the linked foreign communities can help with funding, materials, and expertise. GETTY IMAGES The fusion of inclusion The blend is finally right. With the special education solution from can live up to the promise of differentiated instruction for every student like never before. You’ll harness the power of technology to identify intervention needs, measure students’ responses to intervention, provide supportive, individualized instruction, and track performance. Find out how far we go to make education even more special for every student. Pearson, your inclusive classrooms Kate Parry is a professor in the English department at Hunter College, City University of New York, and chairperson of the Uganda Community Libraries Association. PearsonSchool.com/fusioninclusion 888.977.7900 Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliate(s). All rights reserved. http://PearsonSchool.com/fusioninclusion http://PearsonSchool.com/fusioninclusion
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