Japan’s N$5 million grant to assist 6,500 learners in public schools
The Japanese government will avail a grant totalling N$5 million, in support of six public schools in the country.
Earlier this week an agreement was signed between that Japanese government and the Minister of Education, Arts and Culture at an event held in Windhoek.
Four schools in Khomas region, namely; Augeikhas Primary School, Groot Aub Primary School, Martti Ahtisaari Primary School and Tobias Hainyeko Primary School will be supported in their efforts of abolishing the platoon (double session) system.
While two schools in Kavango West Region, Ncagu Combined School and Ntara Combined School will use the grant for provision of classrooms with permanent structure for the learners who are currently forced to learn in iron-sheet structure due to rapidly increasing number of pupils.
About 6,500 learners of these six schools are going to benefit from the support from the government of Japan.
The government of Japan, through its Grant Assistance for Grass-roots Human Security Projects (GGP) in FY 2017, will support construction of new school blocks consisting of three to four permanent classrooms and one store room respectively, in order to provide more conducive educational environment.
Education is one of the priority areas for the government of Japan in its extension of GGP to Namibia. Total number of schools supported through GGP since its inception in Namibia in 1997 is going to be 38 with the total grant amount of approximately N$27.5 million.
Japan has been implementing GGP in Namibia since 1997, aiming 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.
To date, 54 projects have been supported, totally amounting to approximately N$37.5 million. Since the establishment of its Embassy in Windhoek in 2015, the annual volume of the grant has almost doubled.
Caption: Hideyuki Sakamoto, Ambassador of Japan handing over a list of the six school projects to the Minister, as a token the strong partnership between two governments.
