02 Jul 2015

The deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Ms Halakangwa Mbulai, says Botswana and Japan have a long standing friendship, which extends 50 years.

She said Japan was one of Botswana’s great friends, noting that the two countries partnership went beyond Gaborone, extending to areas such as Mababe in the Ngamiland District.

Ms Mbulai said during the handing over of a pre-school constructed by the Japanese government at Mababe following an appeal from the village trust.

She said the donation was a real community development in a nutshell, adding that it would improve the livelihoods of the communities and the children.

She expressed hope that the community would reciprocate and utilise the facility in an appropriate manner so that in the next 50 years, it remained a testimony of the good work by the Japanese to Botswana.

She said government was committed to come up with good initiatives aimed towards improving the quality of education in schools. She said quality of education was still a challenge and a research undertaken has indicated that access to pre-schools could be a solution hence government has started to roll out pre-schools to villages.

The aim, she said was to ensure all children in remote areas have the same opportunities like those on urban areas. The deputy permanent secretary urged the council to look after the facility and resource it to ensure it benefitted the Beneficiaries.

For her part, the deputy director of Education in North West region, Ms Didimalang Memo said the donation marked achievement of another milestone in Adopt a School initiative in the region and the ministry of Education, Skills and Development.

She said since the inception of the initiative, they have witnessed a wonderful shift in most companies and organisations towards partnering with schools and thanked the Japanese embassy for having children at heart, noting that they could had donated something else in the village but though of a school as a great investment.

Ms Memo noted through the initiative, the ministry has practically flung its doors open to whoever would choose to assist, collaborate and network so that together as a team build a formidable nation through education and training.

She revealed that research has indicated that early childhood education programs were essential because they could boost children’s perceptual, physical mental, emotional, social and intellectual development.

In addition, she said low academic results were a concern to all and believed the donation would assist to redeem the image of the region.

“It is not easy to educate a child, but with such facilities, our ministry would achieve its mandate of providing quality education”, she said. ENDS