Josephina Mwashindange
OMUTHIYA – The director of education in the Oshikoto region, Aletta Eises, has called on primary school teachers to lay a strong quality foundation for primary school learners.
Eises said this while officiating at the opening of the first- ever Jolly Phonics training workshop, meant for primary school teachers in the region, at Ekamuti Lodge in Ondangwa on Monday.
Jolly Phonics is regarded as a fun method of teaching and a child-centred approach to teaching sounds through synthetic phonics.
“The purpose of the training is to empower primary school teachers to be able to teach learners how to recognise sound and how to read and write. Primary education is the foundation of education quality because it is the level where the foundation of reading, writing and counting should be cemented. Sixty percent of learners who are transferred from grade to grade are those learners who did not master the skill of reading,” said Eises.
“If we fail at primary level to help the learners to read, we will fail at secondary level, and eventually learners would not be able to go to universities”, she stated, adding that Jolly Phonics is one of the building blocks that teachers should use in order to make sure that learners advance and gain qualitative knowledge.
Eises noted that education is the greatest equaliser which levels the playing field, Therefore, the foundation laid by primary school teachers should be equal so that learners can step up to tertiary institutions with the knowledge gained from primary education.
“There will be no higher institutions of learning if we are not producing the learners. Basic education, in particular primary education, is the basic foundation of the whole education system. Let us be focused and determined” she urged the teachers. Eises furthermore emphasised that despite the challenges faced by the education sector, the focus should remain on delivering quality education.
About 55 teachers of the lower-primary phase from various public and private schools in the Oshikoto region are expected to benefit from this week-long training offered by trainers from South Africa and Kenya.
Jolly Phonics was launched in Namibia in 2017, and only the Oshana region has fully embraced this learning technique. Phonics has been hailed as a game-changer in how children learn literacy, allowing them to grasp reading abilities far more quickly and efficiently.
* Josephina Mwashindange is an information officer for MICT.