The Minister of Basic Education, Dr Unity Dow has urged students to make reading a habit in order to improve their academic performance. Speaking at the Majwe Mining Academic Excellence Awards in Jwaneng on Friday, the minister called on the students to read various books and other material to help improve their comprehension and language skills. She emphasised the need for children to start shaping their future at an early age so that they could enjoy the rewards later, and be proud of their past in their adult life. She urged them to desist from behaviour that had the potential to destroy their future. Furthermore, Dr Dow appealed to all stakeholders to play their role in ensuring that students’ performances improve. She said instead of allowing gadgets to take over their children’s lives, parents should encourage children to register for reading clubs so that they develop the habit of reading. She said although they acknowledged that books were expensive to buy, teachers and parents should look for other ways to make use of old books. She commended Majwe Mining Joint Venture for its initiative of adopting government schools in Jwaneng and Maokane and sponsoring them with over P1 million over the last four years. She called on other businesses and the community to find ways with which they could collaborate with the government to improve the education sector. For his part, Majwe Mining Joint Venture business director, Mr Rod Fraser said their four- year partnership with schools in Jwaneng and Maokane was one of the successful projects that his company was proud of. He said even though the partnership was coming to an end due to the company’s end of contract with Jwaneng mine next month, there was need to celebrate the achievements of their collaboration with the schools. “There is no doubt that we at Majwe Mining are delighted with what the partnership has brought to our region. Today we should not be sad that the programme is ending, but we should be celebrating the wonderful journey that we took with the schools, the students, the teachers, the parents and our supporting sub-contractors under this programme,” he said. Jwaneng mayor, Mr Tsietsi Oodira-Kwenje said the partnership had managed to achieve its objective of improving school results in Jwaneng and Maokane. He noted that the schools results had been improving since the inception of the programme in 2013. “Majwe Mining needs to be applauded for being one among the many organisations which have found it fit to contribute towards the development and growth of our children’s education,” he said. He said since government alone could not achieve the goal of developing the country’s human resource, there was need for other organisations and companies to take over from where Majwe Mining has left off. ENDS