First steps taken in Namibia’s ICT teacher development programme

The first group of teachers from Oshana and Omusati  Regions in Namibia participated  in the  Intel Teach Getting Started Program.

Present at the graduation ceremony were Namibian Education Permanent Secretary Mr Alfred Ilukena, Director of Omusati, representatives of Oshana and representatives of NIED.

This is as part of the TechNa! initiative in the northern regions of Namibian schools.

Intel’s business developer for the SADC region, Joao Fidalgo, believes education efforts can only be transformed effectively by implementing all pillars of Education Transformation namely Policy, Professional Development, ICT, Content and Pre and Post Evaluation. “Namibia has a solid ICT Education Policy, has now top of class ICT in these 23 schools in the region and with the component of professional development that has occurred over these last four days, the beginning of education transformation in Namibia is well on its way to achieve the vision of TechNa!.”

The four-day course for 27 teachers from schools from northern Namibia (Omusati and Oshana) was facilitated by Intel’s Education Manager for Africa (Andre Christian).

These teachers were congratulated by members from the National Institute of Educational Development (NIED), the Permanent Sec.-MoE , Director – Omusati,  representatitive for Oshana and representative for the Governor of Oshana and Intel representatives at a graduation ceremony immediately following the course.

Joao Fidalgo, expressed delight at the teachers’ achievement:  “I am pleased to see the teacher’s excitement after receiving this training and now we move forward in using technology as a tool to make sure that the students of today are well equipped to support the economic growth of tomorrow. The MoE, NIED, the public sector, the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) have all worked together to place all the best in class elements of education transformation but now it’s for the teachers to embrace this and use these tools to the best of their ability. We are all committed to support you”

“MCA has a programme with the Namibian Government that is aimed at increasing household incomes and to up the competence of the Namibian workforce’s knowledge, skills and attitude. All too essentially reduce poverty through economic growth in the education, tourism and agriculture sectors. In line with this calibration, one of the MCA initiatives was to support the MoE in introducing ICT in these 23 schools  in Northern Namibia.” says Fidalgo.

“With the one-on-one eLearning solution, professional development and the commitment of government and the MoE, the success of the project is not far away,” says Fidalgo.

Staff writer