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You are here » Home » Telling Our Story
Case Study
Over 13,000 students have access to video learning tools at USAID-funded centers
Opening Minds through Educational Technology
Challenge
Namibia gained independence in 1990, after a long period of South African rule and
apartheid policies that discriminated against the majority black population. The Namibian
government has made equity and access its primary goals in education, and has been
successful at boosting enrollment as well as reallocating resources for education to
disadvantaged regions. Namibia still needs to improve the quality of education and develop
tools to maximize the teaching workforce, which is being reduced by the impact of HIV/AIDS.
Photo: Nora Ndopu/Discovery Channel
Teachers and students receive blank tapes to
record educational programs from local cable
company.
“Thank you for making video
available to our school – it is
important that our children
experience such new things.”
– Namibian Parent
Initiative
USAID supported Namibia’s government program
of building basic education system capacity, while
promoting community involvement in schools
through a public-private partnership with the
Discovery Channel Global Education Fund
(DCGEF) and MultiChoice, a Namibian satellite
television service provider. USAID helped
introduce educational video as a learning and
teaching tool at eighteen schools through learning
centers. Each center is equipped with a TV,
VCR, satellite, a set of twenty-four video tapes
with customized educational programming
produced by DCGEF, and print resource guides
for each video program.
Teachers are trained to maximize the use of
television and video as a supplement to the
formal curriculum. All project activities are
designed to meet the information needs of
children and adults. In addition to serving
teachers and students in the classroom, the
learning centers are used as venues where
parents and community members view programs
and attend workshops on HIV/AIDS, health,
micro-enterprise development, and other issues
of local interest.
Results
The USAID-funded learning centers serve more than 13,813 students. A total of 282
teachers have been trained in the effective use of TV and video in the classroom, and
integration of educational and entertainment programming into the curriculum. Currently,
more than 2,394 parents and community members have used the learning center facilities
to view programs and conduct community workshops. Such involvement enhances
community ownership and therefore security of the equipment, and encourages parental
involvement in the education of their children – an ideal which is new to many
Namibian parents.
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