The Preparedness Of Ghana’s School Libraries Towards The Achievements Of The SDGs: A Study Of Senior High Schools In The Akwapim North District

Abstract

Libraries have been nominated as one of the agencies to lead the achievement of the SDGs and school libraries cannot be left out. School libraries serve as learning hubs to promote information and media literacy, digital literacy among others which are all major components of promoting universal literacy across the globe. With the current system of education in Ghana at the senior high school level where majority of the subjects taught are theory base with less practicals for the students to put into practice what they have learnt and become independent learners which is a requirement for lifelong learning, the role of school libraries in Ghana should be seen as a very urgent matter in developing the lifelong learning and literacy skills of young adults. It is based on this background that this research explored the availability of school libraries in Ghana and the role they are playing to help develop the intellectual skills of the students to become literate in information and digital tools as well as develop lifelong learning skills which will lead to universal literacy. The study was carried out in the Akwapim North district of the Eastern Region of Ghana which serves as one of the educational hubs of the country using a qualitative approach by interviewing library staff of three senior high schools. The study revealed that though all three schools studied have libraries, only one of the schools has a trained teacher librarian, none of the library staff interviewed has knowledge of the SDGs and therefore were not providing any service targeted at achieving the SDGs.