Survey uncovers worries about literary education, as schools discard books and libraries: According to a teaching union, many schools are converting their libraries into extra classrooms and in turn,

Survey uncovers worries about literary education, as schools discard books and libraries

discarding the books.

Conducted by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, a recent survey revealed that some school libraries are too small for their purpose and do not have enough computers for all of their pupils to use.

Of the teachers in the survey, more than one fifth said that their budget for their school library had faced cuts of at least 40 per cent in six years.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers said in their report that Ofsted inspectors should review the state of schools’ libraries in each institution they review.

One SEN (Special Educational Needs) teacher from London said during the survey:

“Our school had an excellent library full of books. Sadly the library was dismantled last year and all the wealth of reading matter got rid of to create more space for group intervention work and other activities.”

A teacher from Surrey said that “a whole load of books went into a skip” and another teacher said: “The new head has decided a library is no longer needed so is planning to get rid of it as all reading can be done on iPads.”

There is currently no law which says that all schools should have a library or provide access to a library service, however, 94 per cent of the 485 school staff who took part in the survey said that their school does have one.

A teacher from Cornwall said: “Our library has become a wall of shelves in a corridor with two chairs — we used to have a designated room where children could sit and read or research. We needed the space for another classroom.”