N$830,000 injected into school sports development
The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has sourced about N$830,000 to Hardap schools, in support for school sports development.
The fund’s national committee in the United Kingdom raised an amount of N$800,000 towards the programme, while the national committee in Germany made an addition of N$30,000.
The programme which is known as School Sports for Development aims to build the capacity of primary and secondary school educators and the Ministry officials responsible for delivering physical education and sports
About N$30,000 of the funding has been used to purchase sports equipment and attire which will be used for the programme, which is set to stretch over a year for the pilot programme.
“UNICEF National Committees are independent organisations chartered to carry out advocacy, education and fund-raising among individuals, organisations and companies in different parts of the world to support UNICEF’s work to protect children’s rights worldwide,” the Fund’s Communication Assistant, Rochelle Van Wyk told the Economist.
Van Wyk said that there are expectations for this model intervention to be taken over and become fully supported and managed through government resources. The programme was officially launched by the Minister of Education, Katrina Hanse-Himarwa last week in Mariental.
“The school sports for development programme has been set up in Hardap to serve as a proof of concept or modelling the concept to demonstrate its effectiveness and impact. In consultation with the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture and the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service, the programme is being implemented in Hardap Region due to its proximity to Windhoek for ease of monitoring and giving of technical support to the selected schools,” Van Wyk said.
Currently four schools are part of the programme were 2053 learners and 21 educators have been recruited. The schools include; Mariental High School, Kalkrand Primary School, Rehoboth High School and Vooruitsig Combined School.
According to Van Wyk, there has also been opportunity for the programme to create a school sport network through the schools cluster systems in each area and expand to reach an additional 4500 learners at no extra cost.
Plans to scale up to other regions are at hand and will be fully supported and managed through Government resources, Van Wyk concluded.
