Symbolic torch for Adult Learning

Namibia will join the rest of the international community from 01 to 08 September to celebrate Adult Learner’s Week and the International Literacy Day. This year’s National Theme is “Celebrating 20 years of quality Adult Learning in Namibia” while the international community will celebrate the week under the theme “Cultivating Peace”.
The national celebrations will also include the carrying of a symbolic torch in all 13 regions during the Adult Learners Week and International Literacy Day.
According to Alfred Ilukena, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Adult Learning Week has been endorsed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and is celebrated annually by more than 160 countries worldwide.
“This year’s event is special due to the fact that the National Preparatory Committee for the Adult Learners’ Week and the International Literacy Day has proposed that the focus on one of the Ministry’s Directorate of Adult Education programmes: the National Literacy Programme, falls on celebrating the tenth anniversary of this country-wide programme. This will be celebrated on 05 September. [This] programme has been the driving force behind the massive literacy programme that has enrolled and benefited over 500,000 Namibian men and women over the past 20 years,” he said.
He said, it is this 20 years that the Education Ministry and the nation will be celebrating and to do it in style, a symbolic torch with a special message from the Minister of Education, Dr Abraham Iyambo will simultaneously be touring all thirteen regions, starting this week, Thursday.
The torch starts its tour in the capital and is expected to end at the Opuwo Sports Stadium, Kunene Region on Saturday, 08 September where the main celebration on International Literacy Day will be held.
“We wish to use this opportunity to thank all our partners and stakeholders in education for their support and simultaneously wish to encourage all those adult learners to celebrate this week and to encourage others to become part of a learning nation and join adult learning and open and distance learning programmes offered by many institutions across the country,” said Ilukena.