WINDHOEK- Simon Nambandi, the second best performing Grade 10 student in the Oshikoto Region is thankful to Standard Bank for the award, which he said will motivate him to do better in future.
“I would like to thank Standard Bank for assisting us in our studies. I really felt good to be recognised as the second best student in the Oshikoto Region and the best in the circuit,” he says. Now in Grade 11, he adds that he will use his prize money to buy school equipment and stationeris. Standard Bank Namibia has handed over N$302,000 to three best performing learners in each of the country’s 14 regions who sat for last November’s Grade 10 and Grade 12 national examinations.
The money includes N$50,000 that was awarded to Ibbu Combined School in the Katima Rural Constituency for being the Most Improved Rural Government School after improving from position 297 to 57 nationally. The school said it intends to use the money to build a boundary fence. Each best student in the 14 regions received N$4000, while the first and second runner ups received N$3000 and N$2000, respectively, at a prize giving ceremony held in the capital last week. Speaking at the handover ceremony attended by the Minister of Education Arts and Culture, Katrina Hanse-Himarwa, Standard Bank Head of Marketing, Communications and CSI, Magreth Mengo, said the bank, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, has over the past nine years demonstrated its commitment to academic excellence by honouring learners who distinguished themselves by passing with flying colours.
“It’s safe to say that our commitment to education is one without peers in the corporate sector as evidenced by the various educational initiatives that we sponsor every year through the Forum for African Women Educationalists Namibia (Fawena), our bursary scheme, the Financial Literacy Initiative and Graduate Programme, to name but a few,” Mengo said, adding that the partnership with the ministry through the Academic Excellence Awards is geared towards advancing education in the country by encouraging learners to work hard. Last year, 23 594 pupils sat for the Grade 12 examination and 9 524 qualified for tertiary education. This is higher than the 8 632 full-time pupils who passed in
2017.