Japanese donate over N$800,000 for Katutura School expansion
The Japan Government through the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP) provided funding of N$829,049 to the Auas Primary School in Windhoek’s Katutura settlement.
The grant will be utilised to build a new school block consisting of four permanent classrooms and one store room. The new block will be used by 144 learners in Grade 2 who are currently learning in the afternoon session.
Japan’s assistance is contributing towards the phasing out the platoon system so as to provide a conducive educational environment for the learners. The school currently accommodates 1252 learners from Pre-Primary to Grade 7 and 48 teachers.
“The school is located in one of the disadvantaged settlements with the high poverty rate in Windhoek where the population is rapidly growing. In order to accommodate the dramatically increasing number of learners, the school is forced to follow platoon (double session) system, sacrificing quality education,” said Kaoru Yokotani, First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in Namibia.
Implemented by the Japan government in Namibia since 1997, the GGP programme aims at bringing about direct and immediate impact on the well-being of disadvantaged communities at a grass-roots level by supporting relatively small development projects in areas of local needs such as education, agriculture and health.
According to Yokotani, to date, 49 projects have been supported, totally amounting to approximately N$34 million, and Auas primary school is the 31st school that has been supported through the Grant Assistance for Grassroots.
Caption: Learners from Auas Primary School.
