Africa-Press – Botswana. Macmillan Education Botswana in collaboration with the North West Information Specialist Forum (NWIS) have donated books worth over P1million to North West education regional office to promote literacy and life-long learning.
The books cover a wide range of learning abilities and interests and they would be distributed to all schools’ libraries in the region.
Speaking during the handover on Friday, Macmillan sales and marketing manager, Mr Letsweletse Matlhape said their passion for learning and commitment to elevate education in Botswana to was second to none.
As a trusted publishing brand in Botswana, he said they supported learners, teachers, and institutions through a lifetime of learning by providing them with content in the most relevant, engaging and flexible formats.
The books, he said, would help learners to broaden their reading horizons and improve their performance.
Furthermore, he said the donation was in support of the North West Information Specialist forum (NWIS) chaired by Mr Andreas Mutoroke, whose endeavour is to support and encourage readership in schools libraries.
“As a company, that firmly believes in strong stakeholder relationships, we wish that this small gesture solidifies and intensifies the relationship that is already existing with all educational stakeholders,” he added.
NWIS chairperson, Mr Mutoroke from Okavango Research Institute (ORI) appreciated the donation, saying it would indeed close the gap on library books.
“We are proud of Macmillan because we believe that every learning institution should have libraries to support literacy and education,” he added.
Mr Mutoroke further noted that the books would also be used for research purposes and also assured the recipients that the books had been assessed by the relevant unit under the Ministry of Education and Skills Development.
Giving a brief background of NWIS, he explained that the forum was birthed in 2008 by a group of professionals, primarily to facilitate information sharing as well as to identify constraints that militate against information sharing and recommend solution.
The forum also supports training demands from different working groups and liaises with members and external partners in the field of training and also recommend measures to guard against misuse of information.
Mr Mutoroke mentioned some of the factors that triggered the birth of the forum such as the absence of national library policy, working conditions; limited and dwindling budgets and limited affiliation to professional bodies among others.
The forum strives to create a community of professional information providers, promote professional development, setting standards of excellence as well as promote learning and research.
For her part, the regional education director, Ms Veronica Mochotli thanked both Macmillan and NWIS for the donation, noting that as the ministry they had a duty to run the national mission and vision of accessibility and equity for all.
“We are mandated to ensure children have access and equity to basic education and we are happy that the donation will help,” she added.
The region, she said had a history of unsatisfactory results but stated that the regional education department was committed to make things happen. Since 2020,
Ms Mochotli cited that they experienced an increase in value addition, citing that in 2021, about 27 primary schools added value to results while 10 junior schools and one secondary school also added value to results.
The region, she said was no longer at the bottom of the list of schools not performing well countrywide.
For More News And Analysis About Botswana Follow Africa-Press
