European Union (EU) Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, told the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare (MGEPESW) on Tuesday that the Early Childhood Development (ECD) training for teachers is insufficient.

Urpilainen said this during her visit to the EU-funded ECD centre at Windhoek’s Mix informal settlement.

She urged the MGEPESW to invest in the educators, noting that the seven weeks training the ministry offers ECD teachers is not enough.

“The ministry needs to do more because if we want well qualified teachers, we need to train them more,” Urpilainen said.

Additionally, the commissioner said the EU will offer its support through the new budget support contract valued at N.dollars 1.1 billion dollars (60 million euros) to construct more classrooms, offer school fees support, organise more training to the teachers and increase the quality and quantity of educators.

Urpilainen plans to launch a regional teacher initiative on Thursday in South Africa purely for Sub-Saharan Africa valued at N.dollars 1.9 billion dollars (100 million Euros), aimed at assisting the region to train more teachers and also focus on the quality of the training.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency