ILOILO CITY — Some 50 librarians and writer-teachers gathered here Tuesday for the three-day Training Workshop on the “Development of Children’s Books in Mother Tongue”.
Flordeliza T. Quiñones, assistant chief of the Reference Division of the National Library of the Philippines (NLP), cited the training’s significance since the K to 12 program pushes for the use of the mother tongue.
Quiñones said that through this, they can also provide resources to their clients, especially the children.
The resources, she said, are “scarce” due to the absence of published materials using the mother tongue.
“By this training, we can have a way to produce books aside from Tagalog or English. This is also one way to show to our new generation our love for our heart language,” she said, explaining that the heart language refers to the Hiligaynon dialect because it is the first language that the children learn.
Iloilo City librarian Marion Aguirre said that at the end of the training, being held at the City Hall Penthouse, participants are expected to produce a book in Hiligayon or Kinaray-a. Their output will be compiled, published and displayed at the National Library of the Philippines.
The participants were chosen by the Department of Education.
Iloilo City is the fourth leg in the series of training courses conducted by the NLP, after Palawan, and the cities of Davao and Cebu. The next venue is Cagayan de Oro.
The project is funded by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), where the NLP is an attached agency.
Aguirre expressed hope that the NCCA would continue to provide them with funding to sustain the project.
The first day of the training focused on the story creation workshop that was handled by Dr. Luis Gatmaitan of the OMF Literature who authored more than 40 children’s books.
Irma F. Saligumba, program manager of Beyond Access Philippines, will facilitate the Bloom Software Workshop Tutorial. She will introduce a software that will help participants in their story production.
Melanie Ramirez of the Reference Division of the NLP will have an interactive storytelling workshop on Day 3. She will then share with participants how to make storytelling interesting for children.
The three-day training will wind up on Thursday with the presentation of created stories through storytelling. (Perla Lena/PNA)
