Mohalenyane Phakela
EDUCATIONAL television show Edu-Reloaded on Wednesday partnered with the Vodacom Lesotho Foundation thereby ensuring the programme remains on air.
Edu-Reloaded is a television programme that caters for students who study mathematics and science at Junior Certificate and Cambridge Oxford School Certificate level.
In an event held in the UNESCO’s Conference Hall in Maseru on Wednesday, Vodacom Lesotho Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of the telecommunications giant revealed they would henceforth fund the production of the Edu-Reloaded programmes for an undisclosed amount.
According to Vodacom Lesotho Senior Specialist — Corporate Social Initiatives and Communications Mpho Brown the initiative is aimed at helping address various development changes in the country with education as one of the crucial areas.
“Vodacom, as a key telecoms player in the country, has been known to provide sponsorship to different initiatives in different areas, but in the past year or two the strategy has shifted from interacting with multiple different initiatives to cutting down on the number of partnerships and focusing more on impact,” said Brown.
“That means we focus on projects that have the capacity to affect the whole country; projects that have the aptitude to really move the needle in the country’s social-economic development.”
The key area the foundation is focusing on, says Brown, is education followed by health, general social welfare and economic empowerment.
“If you look at economic political research and models you see that no country has ever developed without heavily investing in education but also that has to go hand in hand with investment in technology and into mobile technology particularly,” he added.
“Edu-Reloaded provides a different platform and alternative medium for students to interact with the subject of Maths and Science and we know that this subject poses challenges to many students in the country and the results over the years have been dissatisfactory and it is really an attitude problem.”
Brown said he believes is not about lack of capability but an attitude problem where people fear these subjects and perceive them as the most difficult. The problem, in his view, lies in how people interact with these subjects.
“From the teacher, who is the source of information, to the student, who is the recipient, the approach is to only cram for exams which is an inefficient way to learn Maths and Science,” Brown observed.
“To really understand these subjects one needs to really interact with the material, see the material in practice and understand its importance.”
Brown further stated that Edu-Reloaded is providing that platform to understand these subjects in a stress free manner “in their homes, with parents and their guardians and they get to actually see all these concepts in practice and we believe that Edu-Reloaded is going to make a change”.
Edu-Reloaded is also collaborating with The Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology, The Ministry of Education and Training through UNESCO and the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (LUCT) in its drive to bridge the gap between students and teachers.
Also speaking at the unveiling was LEAP Manager of LUCT, Lebesa Nkune, who said: “The journey began a year ago when the Edu-Reloaded team came knocking at our doors.
“We believe all they wanted was a technical production partner to ensure this unique yet vibrant idea came to life.
“Limkokwing, being a University that has industry partnership at its core, partnered with relevant industries in enhancing our students’ learning to contribute to the development of this country.”
Nkune said they saw the partnership as a “perfect opportunity” because the passion of Edu-Reloaded to grow the television industry and create youth empowerment and employment while also improving the results in Maths and Science fell in perfect synch with their industrial plans.
“We take pride in the technical production of Edu-Reloaded as all the people behind the production of the episodes are our students,” he said.
Edu-Reloaded was launched by the Minister of Education and Training ‘Makabelo Mosothoane in March this year during the celebration of the Education for All week in the Leribe district, an initiative of the Ministry of Education in collaboration with Khaya Holdings.
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