WINDHOEK: The Ministry of Education has committed to eradication of problems affecting the education system in the country, Deputy Minister of Education David Namwandi said this on Thursday.

Speaking at the launch of three booklets of short stories and poetry written by Namibian learners here, Namwandi said the Namibian education system has a challenge of lack of reading culture in many schools and lack of qualified school librarians.

“I am aware that this problem is further aggravated by the fact that we do not have enough reading materials written in local languages and not every school has properly equipped school libraries,” he said.

Namwandi said his ministry has number of initiatives underway to support the reading culture in schools such as the Directorate of Namibia Library and Archives Service conducting the national short story and poetry writing competition as one of the strategies in addressing the reading problem within the Namibian schools.

He said the Regional competition took place in July 2009 while the national competition took place in June 2010 and engaged learners from 10 out of 13 educational regions as part of the education and training sector improvement programme.

Namwandi encouraged Erongo, Kunene and Hardap regions, which did not participated in this competition to positively respond to the call if educational activities of this nature are initiated.

Deputy Minister said the short story and poetry writing competition was intended to support the objective of the broad curriculum by developing information and literacy skills in learners.

Namwandi said the publication of these booklets demonstrates the important role school libraries can play in supporting the efforts of school curriculum in the teaching and learning process and contribute towards the enhancement of the learners competencies.

He congratulated over 20 young Namibia writers and poets for quality work adding that their names will be written on the golden pages of the history of education system.

Former learner of St Boniface College Emma Lirumbu and current learners of Don Bosco Primary School Theofilus Shipanga were selected as overall winners of story and poetry writers respectively.
Lirumbu wrote more than 10 short stories while Shipanga wrote more than 10 poetry which published by Macmillan publishers.

These series of booklets will be sent to all school libraries and community libraries countrywide.

(edited)WINDHOEK; The Ministry of Education has committed itself to eradicate problems affecting the education system in the country, Deputy Minister of Education, Dr David Namwandi said on Thursday.

Speaking at the launch of three booklets of short stories and poetry written by Namibian learners here, Namwandi said the Namibian education system has a challenge of a lack of reading culture in many schools, and a lack of qualified school librarians.

“I am aware that this problem is further aggravated by the fact that we do not have enough reading materials written in local languages, and not every school has properly-equipped school libraries,” he said.

Namwandi said his ministry has a number of initiatives underway to support the reading culture in schools, such as the Directorate of Namibia Library and Archives Service’s national short story and poetry writing competition that tries to address the reading problem within Namibian schools.

The regional competition took place in July 2009, while the national competition took place in June 2010. It engaged learners from 10 regions as part of the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP).

He thus encouraged the Erongo, Kunene and Hardap regions which did not participate in the competition to positively respond to the call if educational activities of this nature are initiated.

The short story and poetry writing competition was intended to support the objectives of the broad education curriculum by developing information and literacy skills in learners.
Namwandi said the publication of these booklets demonstrates the important role school libraries can play in supporting the efforts of curricula in the teaching and learning processes, and to contribute towards the enhancement of learners’ competencies.

He then congratulated the over 20 young Namibian writers and poets for quality work, adding that their names will be written on the ‘golden pages’ of the history of the country’s education system.

Polytechnic student and former learner of the St Boniface College, Emma Lirumbu, and Theofilus Shipanga, a learner of the Don Bosco Primary School, were selected as overall winners of the short story and poetry competitions, respectively.

Lirumbu wrote more than 10 short stories, while Shipanga wrote more than 10 poems which were published by Macmillan Publishers. These series of booklets will be sent to all school libraries and community libraries countrywide.