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08 December 2021 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Sonia Small
Namibia university
The Office for International Affairs at the UFS recently hosted a delegation from the Namibia University of Science and Technology. Pictured here are, from the left, front: Seithati Ramonaheng, UFS International Scholarships in the Office for International Affairs (OIA); Dr Erling Kavita; Dr Erold Naomab; Prof Yonas Bahta; back: Kagiso Ngake, UFS Partnerships in the OIA; Cornelius Hagenmeier; Zenzele Mdletshe, UFS Partnerships in the OIA; and Dr Falko Buschke, Centre for Environmental Management.

The Office for International Affairs (OIA) at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently (25 November 2021) hosted a delegation from the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST).

During deliberations, the two institutions discussed the possibility of formalising a partnership and it was agreed that the OIA would lead this process through its Partnership portfolio. The UFS and NUST are looking to work together and share information on the development of a COVID-19 vaccination policy, leveraging on the Germany/Namibia green hydrogen partnership, joining forces on the application for centres of excellence administered by the African Union, establishing staff and student exchange programmes, and intensifying their research collaborations.

Cornelius Hagenmeier, the Director of the Office for International Affairs (OIA) at the UFS, chaired the meeting with Dr Erold Naomab, the Vice-Chancellor of NUST, and his adviser, Dr Erling Kavita. Prof Yonas Bahta, Associate Professor in the UFS Department of Agricultural Economics, and Dr Falko Buschke, Senior Lecturer in the UFS Centre for Environmental Management, also attended the meeting and reported on their existing academic collaborations with NUST.

News Archive

UFS researchers help find opportunities to create knowledge
2016-09-15

Description: Mobile libraries  Tags: Mobile libraries

The initiative hopes that the mobile libraries
will continue to contribute towards literature
awareness and access to books at rural
schools in the Free State.
Photo: Supplied

Did you know that only 3 392 primary schools in South Africa have libraries? In the Free State the statistics are shocking. Only 277 primary schools have libraries, while 1 087 carry on without them. One of nine provinces in South Africa, the Free State is regarded as a rural province. The South African Primary Education Support Initiative (SAPESI), in partnership with other sponsors, has committed to expanding access to books by donating mobile libraries to service schools across South Africa. In the Free State, the project is embraced by the Free State Department of Education, which employs the mobile operators and library assistants to service these libraries, driving many kilometres of gravel road to visit remote farm schools and other under-resourced schools. SAPESI has set a goal to supply 75 mobile libraries to provide 2 000 schools with access to books by the year 2020.

Discovering the value of the mobile libraries
Although the mobile libraries in the Free State have been functioning since 2007, no formal research had been conducted on their work. Towards the end of 2014, the Free State Department of Education and the Flemish Association for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance (VVOB) commissioned the UFS to carry out a participatory action research project. Dr Lynette Jacobs, Head of the School of Education Studies at the University of the Free State’s Faculty of Education and her team engaged with role-players at district and provincial level in a Participatory Action Research project.

The research project aimed to describe the work that mobile libraries do, and appraise its influence on learners and schools, towards improving their functionality. In addition, this project aimed to build research capacity within the district teacher development centres.

Highlights of the mobile library project
The way the Free State Department of Education embraced and supported the initiative by Mr Tad Hasunuma and SAPESI, was inspiring. Each of the five education districts has two fully equipped library buses that periodically visit schools. The stock on the buses is regularly replaced by books that SAPESI receives from the international community. Specific books are also loaded for teachers to use as resources. One of the outcomes of the research project was that guidelines were developed for teachers on how to use books in addition to curriculum material in the classroom. At district level, the teams reflected on the work that they were doing and implemented improvement plans to provide an even better service. Findings of the project were presented at the XIV Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society that focused on education provision earlier this year. It was lauded by representatives of the international education community as an example of good practice to provide education to marginalised children.

Reading helps enrich children’s lives
The research project concluded by stating that the aim of the mobile libraries was to provide learners and teachers at rural and farm schools with reading books, and they were doing as best they could. While the mobile libraries cannot make up for possible challenges related to teaching and learning or in infrastructure, the learners and the teachers are regularly provided with good resources to encourage reading and stimulate literacy development.

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