By Chrispin Inambao WINDHOEK Touched by an NBC news report narrating how students at Sangwali Secondary School resorted to sharing textbooks due to critical shortages, a senior minister donated several textbooks to the school. Grappling with a counter-productive shortage of teaching aids and educational material, the school in Linyanti Constituency in rural Caprivi, last Friday received a batch of text-books in Natural Economy, Business Studies, Development Studies and two computers from Dr Richard Kamwi, the Minister of Health and Social Services. At the ceremony that was witnessed by Lovemore Lupalezwi, the Regional Director of Education, and Dorothy Kabula the Councillor for Linyanti Constituency and a National Council member, the ruling Swapo politician urged students at Sangwali to excel in their exams. He said the present skills deficit, that has seen Namibia recruiting expatriate medical doctors, nurses, engineers and other specialized professionals can only be remedied if local students take mathematics and science subjects that are a must for these highly demanding fields. He said after he verified the NBC story with two prominent people who hail from Sangwali he approached Dr S.J. Briedenhann who contributed N$5 780 and the Brandt Patrick Association that availed a similar amount, bringing the total donation to N$11 560 that he used to buy the textbooks and he decided to donate his personal computer while the other computer was donated by the Swedish Embassy. Before last Friday’s donation the school where several students shared a single textbook did not have a computer. Several weeks ago NBC-TV ran a story on the high failure rate at the school – that respondent students interviewed at that time solely attributed to the adverse shortage of textbooks and the high student/teacher ratio. At Friday’s event that was also attended by Mayeyi Chief Boniface Shifu and members of the school board, the minister encouraged the learners at Sangwali to show their appreciation by passing. “Work hard, do your homework and consult with your teachers. Work in groups with one aim of obtaining a distinction come exams. Remember your good Samaritans demand a thank you for a pass, ” he said. *Meanwhile, thousands of people, including government ministers, flocked to the annual Masubia Cultural Festival at Bukalo on Saturday where various cultural groups treated them to tribal performances. Apart from being entertained through animated cultural performances, traditionalists and other attendees also feasted on African delicacies comprising elephant, buffalo and hippo culled for the annual event. Some of those in attendance traveled from as far as Windhoek, Grootfontein, Rundu, Oshakati, Ondangua among other localities, to attend the event where a traditionalist, keeping strictly in accordance with prescribed tradition, recounted the rich traditional narrative of the Masubia tribe currently under the leadership of Chief Kisco Liswani III. Ngambela Crispin Katukula and senior indunas were in attendance.