MultiChoice promoting and enhancing ICT education

Upgrades of the MultiChoice Resource Centres (MRCs) was officially launched in the Hardap region by Hon. Katrina Hanse-Himarwa, Minister of Education, Arts and Culture at Mariental Secondary School on 18 July to promote and enhance Information and Communications Technology (ICT) education in Namibia through the MultiChoice Resource Centre programme.
The programme was established to increase and enhance access to quality educational resources, mainly in rural areas across Africa. Through the MRCs, the extensive reach and capabilities of the DStv digital satellite technology platform is leveraged to bring high quality, up-to-date learning materials into schools. The programme benefits teachers and pupils, regardless of geographical or logistical constraints.
After almost a decade, the MRC programme has established a track record of over 1,900 centres rolled out to schools and educational institutions across 29 African countries. Over 300 Namibian schools have benefited from this programme since its inception in 2004.
MultiChoice Namibia’s key focus for the next three years is to upgrade the existing MultiChoice Resource Centres across the country. As part of the upgrades, each MRC is provided with a television, mounting bracket, Personal Video Recorder (PVR) decoder and satellite dish. The schools are then given access to the DStv Education Bouquet, which offers teachers’ new teaching material and the resources to record it on the PVR.
The DStv educational bouquet offers world-class content through the following channels:
Business Day TV; BBC World News; Mind-set; NBC; HISTORY; BBC Knowledge; Animal Planet; Nat Geo Wild; National Geographic and Discovery Channel.
Teachers at all MRCs receive training and orientation, not only on the use of the equipment and basic technical troubleshooting, but also on how to effectively integrate the valuable resources into the teaching and learning experience.