MTC Rural School Project well on track

Elizabeth Joseph
Staff reporter



Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) launched the MTC Rural School Project yesterday morning.

The project, which answers to the call to dilapidated schools that lack decent structures or have none at all, will see MTC partner with the ministry of education, arts & culture and rural schools to either build new classrooms or renovate existing ones to ensure that the Namibian child learns in a conducive and safe environment.

MTC chief executive officer Licky Erastus said the company stands united in the vision of ensuring that every Namibian child is taught in a decent classroom, and this project aims to support that vision.

“This is a CSI initiative and not a sponsorship. We are therefore inviting like-minded organisations to partner with MTC so that we can help more schools and hand them over with desks and chairs,” he said.

The first two schools that will benefit from the project are Sizongoro Combined School, situated 30 km west of Rundu in the Kavango East Region, and Okondaune Primary School near Opuwo. Both schools have indicated they need four classrooms each.

“It is our intention to finalise this project by the end of September 2020, and help more schools that are in need in 2021,” said Erastus.

He said MTC aimed to focus on rural schools and needed guidance from the line ministry on which schools to target next.

Erastus also praised the education ministry’s decision to build schools with the help of students from NIMT who took part of the first round of the MTC Namibia National Internship Project.

The MTC Namibia National Internship Project, which addresses the huge challenge of internships in Namibia, last year had a successful intake of 160 students. This year, despite the Covid-19 state of emergency, the project already has 95 students on board.

Education minister Anna Nghipondoka thanked MTC for being a friend of education and supporting the ministry.

“We would like to thank, recognise and appreciate the donation of classrooms from MTC to our ministry. This is not the first time that MTC is supporting, so it is vividly clear that MTC realises that educating the Namibian child is a collective responsibility and that it takes a village to raise a child,” said Nghipondoka.

The minister indicated that Namibia needs more than 5 100 extra classrooms at a total cost of N$1.8 billion.