Preschool

On January 18^th 2012 the preschool of steps for children – Johanniter PrePrimary School opened. It is the third project by steps in Namibia together with the planned computer school (supposed to open in June 2012). Two classes with 28 children are being prepared for school by the two teachers Agnes and Selma. Alicia Schirmer, another volunteer of the program “weltwärts” and Susann du Toit as head of the preschool support the two teachers.

There will be 5 languages spoken at the preschool, as Agnes and Selma speak Owambo, Damara, Kavango, Afrikaans and English. Their main target, however, is to teach the children English and Africaans because later at school teaching will be done in these languages. Almost all of the children have a very low educational background. So for many of them it was even very difficult to handle scissors or pencils. After hardly four weeks most of them could write their name.

Those parents who attended the first parents’ evening were positively astonished about the nicely decorated classroom and the songs and poetry presented by the children. It became obvious to the parents that the preschool would not only prepare their children in a good and useful way for the coming time at school but also that the children and their teachers would enjoy the activities.