03 Feb 2021

Some media graduates intend to expose school going children to the media world from a young age.

In a press briefing on Monday, communication specialist for Broadcasters Organisation, Ms Tshegofatso Mphare, said they were also aiming at assisting children improve their school marks through a programme dubbed Destiny Shapers.

Ms Mphare said their organisation came at an opportune time when Botswana was faced with a mammoth task of improving results at primary and junior secondary levels.

She indicated that their vision was birthed with an ambition to promote education through media from grass roots level. 

Also, Ms Mphare said the intention of their organisation was to inspire success among young people, teachers, media practitioners as well as potential investors in the education sector.

Many children, she said, grew up with no media literacy and got to have a glimpse on media once done with high school. 

She, however, noted that introduction to media at an early age would assist a young person to have a miscellany of career paths to explore instead of focusing on normal and common professions such as nursing, teaching and armed forces, amongst others.

Ms Mphare highlighted that they had liaised with 350 primary schools and 35 junior secondary school across the country thus far.

She stated that schools that were performing below average prior to introduction of their organisation, were now making transitions to top the chats. This, she professed was a clear indication that the project was impacting positively in the student community. 

“The existence of the Destiny Shapers project has managed to improve the landscape of communities in remote areas as a lot of schools under the project perform above 50 percent pass rate each year,” quipped Ms Mphare as a matter of fact.

Meanwhile, Ms Mphare appealed to investors to assist financially or in kind to enable the project to thrive. 

Their goal, she said, was to reach remote areas and cover vast population of pupils in all corners of the country.  

Sharing the same sentiments, the National focal Person, of The Destiny Shapers Programme, Ms Agnes Seatholo mentioned that the programme had activities or platforms that gave learners an opportunity to learn from each other, to improve their listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. 

It also refreshed their minds from the classroom set up, she said.

Ms Seatholo said among the exercise they did to encourage media from an early age included an opportunity to compete on broadcasting activities such as news reading, television reporting, research, debate, essay writing as well as magazine writing.

She said in that way, children’s confidence were well built, as they learned to read fluently as well as researched for different topics.

Ms Seatholo further encouraged exposure of children to media industry as a must especially during the COVID-19 era.

Among the initiative in the Destiny Shapers Program, Ms Seatholo mentioned that they had installed some applications that learners used to do homework. 

She also said they had an APP called Matshwao System, a computerized application invented to help teachers to compile and analyze student’s marks.

She indicated that Matshwao System, together with other APPs were relevant in the 21st century, adding that it helped ease working load for both educators and learners. ends