23 May 2018

Some school heads in Ngamiland District have been urged to support the Peace Corps Volunteers assigned to their schools to enable them realise their potential for the benefit of their schools.

The deputy director of education in Ngamiland region, Ms Didimalang Memo said they should consider themselves lucky, and advised them to take advantage of the new strategies and skills they were bringing.

She made the remarks during a ceremony to welcome a group of Peace Corps who agreed to compile a document that promoted literacy in schools. The document is a report of all activities the group embarked on during their literacy cycling tour, and it is expected to be enrolled in all primary schools within the district.

Ms Memo welcomed the document, noting that it would be another strategy to support what the teachers had been doing. She commended the Peace Corps Volunteers for a job well done, saying that they had planted a seed which needed to be maintained.

“At the end of your two-year service, you would be proud to have left a legacy in the region and we really appreciate your efforts towards our education system,” she added.

The deputy director urged school heads without Peace Corp Volunteers to go and benchmark at other schools assigned volunteers. She was optimistic that the document would make a difference in performance of results.

For his part, the Peace Corp training director, Mr Mpho Dikole explained that the group sold the idea of literacy training while in their in-service training last year December.

He said since they all understand the importance of education, they gave it the green light as they saw the light at the end of the tunnel. He also urged school heads to support the volunteers, adding that without their buy in, they would find it difficult to execute their duties diligently.

Mr Dikole said it was pleasing as they focused much on English. The group aims to improve the subject by five per cent as they believe that once the learners performed well in the subject, they would do better in other subjects.

He said the strategy would complement what the schools had been doing, adding that most of the time teachers used the lecture method.

Some of the teachers expressed confidence that the strategy would bring the desired results, saying that they would implement the strategy, monitor and evaluate it every term. ENDS