Teachers receive training in digital education
A step towards digital education
The goal of the project is to make digital education accessible to all learners, despite their location.
Education minister Anna Nghipondoka launched a digital school project on Monday at the National Institute of Educational Development (NIED) in Okahandja.At the event, 53 teachers from 16 different schools were recognised after completing a 10-hour training course in specialised digital education over the past month.
The course was offered by the Digital School of the United Arab Emirates and focused on different digital education methodologies.
Teachers said they were pleased with the initiative, although those from more remote areas urged investors such as MTC and Telecom - who were also present at the event - to further improve connectivity for rural schools.
The goal of the project is to make digital education accessible to all learners, despite their location.
In the face of scepticism, Nghipondoka defended the project by saying, “While some suggest that we should return to old systems, we will stay focused on developing with global education standards."
Covid-19’s impact
During the pandemic, many schools were unprepared to handle the lockdown regulations. Initially, the necessary infrastructure and training required for the transition to online learning were lacking.
Even in schools with the required infrastructure, training teachers for the task took time. Projects like this will help better prepare educators for similar future challenges.
Countrywide modernisation
The project is also another step towards the modernisation and digitalisation of education. Hedwich Meyer, chief librarian at the National Library of Namibia, noted earlier this year that digitalisation is very important to the education and information sectors, and plans to digitalise library resources are in the works.
Additionally, at the Co-Creation Hub Hackathon, another plan to digitise government documents was presented and accepted. Brito Kandombe, Sherleyn Kandombo, Anna Amon and Tyrone Nashandi suggested the use of a machine learning algorithm to recognise characters on documents