Namibia, UNESCO-China Funds-in-Trust launch Kopano online forum to empower educators

Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 16:50:59|Editor: xuxin

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WINDHOEK, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The Namibian government joint with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-China Funds-in-Trust (CFIT) on Thursday launched the inter-institutional Kopano Online Education Forum in efforts to bridge the education quality gap in Africa.

The digital forum was launched to foster skills exchange among educators in Africa and harness technology for teacher training, said UNESCO's head of office in Namibia, Djaffar Moussa-Elkadhum.

Due to distance and vastness of the country, educators usually suffer in isolation when pursuing studies at a distance. They also struggle to devise new ways of improving the quality of teaching and learning, said Namibia's Minister of Education, Arts and Culture Katrina Hanse-Himarwa.

"Kopano Online Education Forum platform, therefore, serves as an opportunity to breakdown the distance and isolation in the education system, and accord educators the chance to interact virtually, and to further engage in continuous professional development," she said.

The project is also set to boost Namibia's progress towards the fulfillment of the African Union's Continental Education Strategy for Africa and global Sustainable Development Goal (Goal 4), to which Namibia is a signatory.

The support to the programme forms part of China's commitment to helping advance the course of education in Africa, said Yang Jun, Charge d'Affaires at the Chinese Embassy in Namibia.

"One of the focus areas of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is capacity building, as seen with the support towards this programme, other training and scholarship programmes to the people of Africa. The objective is to establish a future knowledgeable community of educators and teachers," he said.

The CFIT project will be implemented in 10 African countries, which are Namibia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Liberia, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.

More than 3,800 educators in Namibia are registered on the virtual platform so far.