SINZOGORO –  Mobile telecommunications giant MTC has come to the rescue of Sinzogoro Combined School in Kavango West by funding the construction of four classrooms and two storerooms at a cost of N$1.6 million. 

MTC offered to assist the rural school after a fire tore through the four classrooms and a storeroom at the school last year. 
“When we launched the MTC rural school project three months back, we said that every year we will go into rural areas and build classrooms for needy schools. Sinzogoro today is the very first recipient. There is another school that we will also inaugurate in the next weeks in Rundu but this is the very first of this project,” said the MTC executive Tim Ekandjo during the unveiling ceremony last week. 

“We will not meet government halfway, but we will go all the way to make sure the future of our children is safe,” said Ekandjo. 
Education deputy minister Faustina Caley said the ministry believes quality education is a shared responsibility. 
“Cognisant of the broader challenges that our country is faced with, the ministry has developed a national strategic plan which seeks to ensure that,” she said. 

“Besides financial prudence and accountability, the call for support from all stakeholders and friends in education is needed to maximise efficiency and effectiveness in the overall provision of quality education to the Namibian child.” 
Caley noted the ministry makes budgetary provision for the supply of schools and hostel infrastructure, as well as the provision of human and material resources in advancing the quality of education in general – and teaching and learning in particular. 
However, this provision is faced with numerous challenges.  

“What gives us hope is the fact that our clarion call to friends of education to help us mitigate some of these challenges is receiving the attention it deserves – and today’s occasion, in which a corporate entity like MTC has constructed classrooms, bears testimony to that call,” she said.  
Caley commended MTC for spending their resources at Sinzorogo Combined School to construct classrooms. 
“As a matter of fact, these physical infrastructures are needed in advancing quality education at this school in particular and at all our schools across the country,” she said. 

“I am extremely optimistic that this genuine contribution will go a long way in mitigating the challenges this school has faced after the burning down of the school’s classrooms. As a consequence of this fire, Grade 5, 6 and 7 classrooms and the staffroom were affected.”
- jmuyamba@nepc.com.na