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Schools reject free books

20.03.07

In a piece on David Campbell's Millennium Library Trust, the Guardian wonders why some schools are refusing the free books. Campbell, who has sent sets of 300 books to some 4,150 schools across the UK, confesses to a certain sympathy for the heads and librarians who sent letters complaining of decades of neglect from governments. "Where I have less sympathy is where librarians or teachers have clearly thrown in the towel and don't believe anyone in the school can be inspired to read beyond the bare syllabus minimum."

But the Guardian does find at least one librarian from one of the schools that rejected the offer, who is happy to defend the decision to send the books back. "When a scheme like this goes on, and with these amounts of money, you really feel some research should be done into the actual schools," says Helena Read, who runs the library at Cotelands school, a small 11-16 comprehensive of 380 pupils in the Linconshire village of Ruskington. "A lot of the time, decisions are made far away in ivory towers without considering the local situation. When I read the letter telling me how much had been spent, I could have ripped my hair out. I thought, if only they'd given me a tiny percentage of that money I could have bought this, this and this . . ."



Guardian

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