01 Aug 2019

Over 30 Out of School Education and Training (OSET) learners have started small income generating projects courtesy of Korean government through their Bridge Africa Project (BAP).

The projects included leatherwork, beadwork, woodwork, Tswana breed poultry, knitting and sewing, paper recycling among others.

 BAP is designed to provide better access and quality education for the learners from Out of School Education and Training (OSET) and Early Childhood Development in selected projects.

It was reported that BAP assisted OSET financially to train learners in functional literacy skills since 2018.

The project has benefited learners from Kweneng West and Ghanzi regions since they had been identified as districts with high illiteracy rates.

However, it was reported that though the learners were active in production, their main challenge had been lack of exposure and as such BAP held a market day in Maun for them to market their products. The market day had also be extended to Kasane.

Maun and Kasane are both tourism destination areas and it is expected that learners will be able to establish markets locally and internationally.

Speaking during the market day, the project coordinator, Ms Mmapula Lee called on members of the public to support the learners who she had proved that literacy was not about reading and writing but had to be functional.

She appreciated that the learners used their literacy skills to produce quality products which would help them put bread on the table.

Meanwhile, Ms Lee explained that BAP was initiated by Korean National Commission for UNESCO and sponsored by the Korean ministry of Education to provide quality education to learners with little access to public education in Sun-Saharan Africa. The gathering at the market day learnt that since 2010, Korea National Commission for UNESCO has been working with six Sub-Saharan countries of Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe to accelerate achievement of the global Sustainable Development Goals.

Ms Lee said the project had been operational in Botswana since 2016 through the collaboration between Korea and Botswana National Commission for UNESCO under the ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology.

The actual implementation, she said was conducted by OSET and Early Childhood Development Units under the department of Basic education in the ministry of Basic Education. Asked if there were any plans to extend the project to other poverty stricken regions such as Ngamiland, the coordinator stated that they had no plans for now as their focus was only in two regions. For their part some learners hailed the project for making a big difference in their lives. They said the project had made them to think outside the box and explore available opportunities to improve their livelihoods. ENDS