Empowering future generations

The educational booklet project of Namibia Media Holdings (NMH) continues to pave the way for change and empowerment of learners throughout the country.
Mariselle Stofberg
Mariselle Stofberg

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A great need for reading material for children in their mother tongue continues to be a concern in the country, with many schools who still offer teaching in the vernacular languages who continue to find it challenging to acquire the needed material.

The educational booklets produced by Namibia Media Holdings, in collaboration with the ministry of education, arts and culture, has played an important role to provide schools with the resources needed to enable learners to read and learn in their mother tongue.

The principal of Mariental Primary School, Manfred Morris Isaack, expressed his gratitude towards NMH and the ministry for playing such a crucial role in safeguarding teaching in children’s home language.

“Our school was one of the first schools to be opened up in Mariental and after 65 years of existence, the school is proud to be a home for many learners. Today we have approximately 1 475 learners with two streams of education done in Afrikaans and Khoekhoegowab.”

Isaack added that almost 80% of their learners are orphans and vulnerable children.

“These booklets play such a critical role for us as a school, because it enables us to provide reading material to our learners in their mother tongue, which is of the utmost importance in safeguarding our languages,” he said.

“It was of such an amazing help for us and our learners, because in time of need, this was a lifeline for us and our learners and the booklets continue to assist and empower us and our learners.”

Sandra Goagoses, a head of department at Oanob Primary School in Rehoboth, shared the same sentiments.

Apart from enabling the learners to read and learn in their native languages, the booklets serve another important role at this school.

“A lot of our learners come from vulnerable communities and backgrounds, and don’t always have the funds needed to buy all their stationery. And this often also results in them not being able to buy coloured paper to cover their books. This is where the booklets have again saved us.”

At the school, the teachers make use of the front pages of the older booklets to decorate their learners’ booklets to make sure everyone has a bright and colourful front page.

“They now all feel special, and no one feels left out,” Goagoses added.

The school also makes copies of the reading comprehension material and stories in the booklets to staple together to create “a type of a story book for them and future learners, so they can now also read stories in their mother tongue”.

Goagoses added that they believe this project will continue to assist learners, teachers and parents to ensure education remains a top priority.

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Namibian Sun 2024-09-20

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LaLiga: Leganés 0 vs 2 Athletic Club | Real Betis 2 vs 1 Getafe | Mallorca 1 vs 0 Real Sociedad Katima Mulilo: 25° | 39° Rundu: 20° | 39° Eenhana: 17° | 36° Oshakati: 15° | 34° Ruacana: 16° | 35° Tsumeb: 19° | 34° Otjiwarongo: 13° | 32° Omaruru: 14° | 32° Windhoek: 11° | 28° Gobabis: 9° | 30° Henties Bay: 11° | 18° Wind speed: 22km/h, Wind direction: W, Low tide: 06:23, High tide: 12:53, Low Tide: 19:02, High tide: 01:16 Swakopmund: 12° | 14° Wind speed: 22km/h, Wind direction: NW, Low tide: 06:21, High tide: 12:51, Low Tide: 19:00, High tide: 01:14 Walvis Bay: 11° | 17° Wind speed: 23km/h, Wind direction: N, Low tide: 06:21, High tide: 12:50, Low Tide: 19:00, High tide: 01:13 Rehoboth: 7° | 29° Mariental: 7° | 26° Keetmanshoop: 6° | 24° Aranos: 6° | 27° Lüderitz: 14° | 27° Ariamsvlei: 6° | 23° Oranjemund: 15° | 30° Luanda: 22° | 24° Gaborone: 11° | 17° Lubumbashi: 18° | 36° Mbabane: 8° | 9° Maseru: 3° | 13° Antananarivo: 11° | 28° Lilongwe: 21° | 31° Maputo: 14° | 15° Windhoek: 11° | 28° Cape Town: 10° | 21° Durban: 13° | 14° Johannesburg: 7° | 9° Dar es Salaam: 23° | 29° Lusaka: 21° | 34° Harare: 17° | 30° Currency: GBP to NAD 23.2 | EUR to NAD 19.52 | CNY to NAD 2.48 | USD to NAD 17.5 | DZD to NAD 0.13 | AOA to NAD 0.02 | BWP to NAD 1.28 | EGP to NAD 0.35 | KES to NAD 0.14 | NGN to NAD 0.01 | ZMW to NAD 0.65 | ZWL to NAD 0.04 | BRL to NAD 3.19 | RUB to NAD 0.19 | INR to NAD 0.21 | USD to DZD 132.02 | USD to AOA 927.77 | USD to BWP 13.17 | USD to EGP 48.48 | USD to KES 128.48 | USD to NGN 1593.37 | USD to ZAR 17.51 | USD to ZMW 26.45 | USD to ZWL 321 | Stock Exchange: JSE All Share Index Same 0 | Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) Overall Index 1838.95 Up +1.41% | Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) MASI 14184.33 Up +0.68% | Egyptian Exchange (EGX) 30 Index 30937.69 Up +1.96% | Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) DCI 9651.25 Same 0 | NSX: MTC 7.75 SAME | Anirep 8.99 SAME | Capricorn Investment group 17.34 SAME | FirstRand Namibia Ltd 49 DOWN 0.50% | Letshego Holdings (Namibia) Ltd 4.1 UP 2.50% | Namibia Asset Management Ltd 0.7 SAME | Namibia Breweries Ltd 31.49 UP 0.03% | Nictus Holdings - Nam 2.22 SAME | Oryx Properties Ltd 12.1 UP 1.70% | Paratus Namibia Holdings 11.99 SAME | SBN Holdings 8.45 SAME | Trustco Group Holdings Ltd 0.48 SAME | B2Gold Corporation 47.34 DOWN 1.50% | Local Index closed 677.62 UP 0.12% | Overall Index closed 1534.6 DOWN 0.05% | Osino Resources Corp 19.47 DOWN 2.41% | Commodities: Gold US$ 2 608.44/OZ UP +0.82% | Copper US$ 4.31/lb DOWN -0.0032 | Zinc US$ 2 895.80/T DOWN -1.4% | Brent Crude Oil US$ 74.22/BBP DOWN -0.0089 | Platinum US$ 976.80/OZ DOWN -0.006 Sport results: LaLiga: Leganés 0 vs 2 Athletic Club | Real Betis 2 vs 1 Getafe | Mallorca 1 vs 0 Real Sociedad Weather: Katima Mulilo: 25° | 39° Rundu: 20° | 39° Eenhana: 17° | 36° Oshakati: 15° | 34° Ruacana: 16° | 35° Tsumeb: 19° | 34° Otjiwarongo: 13° | 32° Omaruru: 14° | 32° Windhoek: 11° | 28° Gobabis: 9° | 30° Henties Bay: 11° | 18° Wind speed: 22km/h, Wind direction: W, Low tide: 06:23, High tide: 12:53, Low Tide: 19:02, High tide: 01:16 Swakopmund: 12° | 14° Wind speed: 22km/h, Wind direction: NW, Low tide: 06:21, High tide: 12:51, Low Tide: 19:00, High tide: 01:14 Walvis Bay: 11° | 17° Wind speed: 23km/h, Wind direction: N, Low tide: 06:21, High tide: 12:50, Low Tide: 19:00, High tide: 01:13 Rehoboth: 7° | 29° Mariental: 7° | 26° Keetmanshoop: 6° | 24° Aranos: 6° | 27° Lüderitz: 14° | 27° Ariamsvlei: 6° | 23° Oranjemund: 15° | 30° Luanda: 22° | 24° Gaborone: 11° | 17° Lubumbashi: 18° | 36° Mbabane: 8° | 9° Maseru: 3° | 13° Antananarivo: 11° | 28° Lilongwe: 21° | 31° Maputo: 14° | 15° Windhoek: 11° | 28° Cape Town: 10° | 21° Durban: 13° | 14° Johannesburg: 7° | 9° Dar es Salaam: 23° | 29° Lusaka: 21° | 34° Harare: 17° | 30° Economic Indicators: Currency: GBP to NAD 23.2 | EUR to NAD 19.52 | CNY to NAD 2.48 | USD to NAD 17.5 | DZD to NAD 0.13 | AOA to NAD 0.02 | BWP to NAD 1.28 | EGP to NAD 0.35 | KES to NAD 0.14 | NGN to NAD 0.01 | ZMW to NAD 0.65 | ZWL to NAD 0.04 | BRL to NAD 3.19 | RUB to NAD 0.19 | INR to NAD 0.21 | USD to DZD 132.02 | USD to AOA 927.77 | USD to BWP 13.17 | USD to EGP 48.48 | USD to KES 128.48 | USD to NGN 1593.37 | USD to ZAR 17.51 | USD to ZMW 26.45 | USD to ZWL 321 | Stock Exchange: JSE All Share Index Same 0 | Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) Overall Index 1838.95 Up +1.41% | Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) MASI 14184.33 Up +0.68% | Egyptian Exchange (EGX) 30 Index 30937.69 Up +1.96% | Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) DCI 9651.25 Same 0 | NSX: MTC 7.75 SAME | Anirep 8.99 SAME | Capricorn Investment group 17.34 SAME | FirstRand Namibia Ltd 49 DOWN 0.50% | Letshego Holdings (Namibia) Ltd 4.1 UP 2.50% | Namibia Asset Management Ltd 0.7 SAME | Namibia Breweries Ltd 31.49 UP 0.03% | Nictus Holdings - Nam 2.22 SAME | Oryx Properties Ltd 12.1 UP 1.70% | Paratus Namibia Holdings 11.99 SAME | SBN Holdings 8.45 SAME | Trustco Group Holdings Ltd 0.48 SAME | B2Gold Corporation 47.34 DOWN 1.50% | Local Index closed 677.62 UP 0.12% | Overall Index closed 1534.6 DOWN 0.05% | Osino Resources Corp 19.47 DOWN 2.41% | Commodities: Gold US$ 2 608.44/OZ UP +0.82% | Copper US$ 4.31/lb DOWN -0.0032 | Zinc US$ 2 895.80/T DOWN -1.4% | Brent Crude Oil US$ 74.22/BBP DOWN -0.0089 | Platinum US$ 976.80/OZ DOWN -0.006