A good teacher understands that education goes beyond academics and achieving certain grades. To sustain education as a form of life-long learning, it is vital to capture a student’s interest in a subject.
Rizal Kapandi, a librarian at SK Medini Trust School (MTS), does exactly that. As a librarian, he wanted to find a way to attract students to read and improve their literacy. The library at MTS was located on the fourth floor and students were not willing to climb so many flights of stairs during their short twenty-minutes recess trip. So Rizal brought the library down to them instead.
That was when the idea for Art Xcess Library (AXL) was born. At MTS, there are 23 AXLs located around the school for ease of access to reading for students. Each AXL, essentially a mini library made up of a bookshelf, has its own design – ranging from dinosaurs to trucks – all handcrafted as a joint effort between students, teachers, and parents. Students draw their ideas on pieces of paper and then execute them together with the adults using recycled items. The bookshelves only hold books related to their respective themes. To instill a sense of responsibility and ownership, students are appointed to take care of their own spaces, reminding peers to keep the shelves tidy and to return books after reading. A concept of trust is also emphasised where students can take a book home without checking it out like they do at the normal library.
Apart from the AXL project, Rizal has also introduced pop-up books into the school curriculum. The use of pop-up graphics brings books to life thus gaining a student’s interest, but because of the intricacy of the cut-outs, pop-up books can be expensive. As a part of The Movable Book Society, an organisation for artists to share information on pop-up books, Rizal makes his own pop-up books and conducts workshops on pop-up bookmaking for teachers and students. In the school library on the fourth floor lies a “Medini City” corner where pop-up books made by Rizal and students are displayed. As these books are fragile and precious, only seven students are allowed at a time to preserve these projects.
Rizal has also been invited to educational and arts conferences around Asia to share his work. Describing himself as an opportunist, he takes his students with him when he gets invited to local events, giving them the chance to present what they have been taught in school. To him, this exposure is important to a student’s development; to see a world beyond the four walls of a classroom.
Rizal’s contribution through AXL and pop-up books is not only limited within the scope of literacy, but in its building and detailing as it encompasses science, technology, arts, engineering, and mathematics.
“Love what you do and success will follow” is Rizal’s motto.
