Three NCF representatives met
with former world champion and current FIDE presidency candidate Garry Kasparov
together with his South African dignitaries, which included Afika Msimang,
president of the Kasparov Chess Foundation in Africa and the president of Chess
South Africa, Hendrik du Toit amongst others. President of the Namibia Chess
Federation, Otto Nakapunda and his colleagues rubbed shoulders with Kasparov
during a dinner meeting in Sandton, Johannesburg, where the chess minded
grandees presented radical methods of growing chess not only in Namibia but in
Africa as a whole. Amidst a number of campaign driven discussions, Kasparov
mentioned that he now recognized the fact that Africa has been neglected for
far too long in terms of providing chess as an educational tool and that he
himself was guilty of this a few years back. The now retired professional chess
player however has now continued to show his commitment to developing chess in
school programs in many African countries..JPG)
The NCF delegates were also
treated to an eye-opening workshop aimed at illustrating how chess has had a
huge impact on South African schools through a MiniChess[1] Program that has
become renowned as an award winning educational program in South Africa. The
founder of the MiniChess program, Marisa van der Merwe, who facilitated the workshop,
says that, “MiniChess is aimed at children 5-9 years old as it not only makes
them school ready but also helps them understand maths and science through
chess at a very tender age.” She also pointed out that the program is currently
employed at a number of pre-primary and primary schools in South Africa which
all show great progress in terms of the children’s logic, problem solving
skills, creativity, planning, concentration, reading and emotional maturity. “The
MiniChess program was developed over years of teaching chess to “entry phase”
learners (5 to 9 years of age) as part of the school curriculum. It has already
been used on a trial basis, with great success, at a number of schools in SA,”
she explains.
The program would ideally fit
into Namibian pre-schools and elementary schools as it is organized into
structured lessons, with detailed lesson plans in the Teacher's Manuals and
attractive Project Books for the learners. Marisa demonstrated that the program
uses tried and tested methods for teaching chess to little ones, including the
use of so-called "MiniChess" games.
Public Relations Officer of NCF,
McLean Handjaba, was most pleased with the program and hints that should the
program find home in Namibia, the whole nation as a whole will benefit for
generations to come as it aims at educating the very core and life of our
country and that is the children. Also fascinated by the program was
Development Officer, Charles Eichab, who says that the program is very
beneficial as, “the learning process is broken down into small steps, building
confidence while keeping it fun, and is in line with the skills level of the
young child at that specific age, e.g. Colouring, cutting and pasting, form
recognition, simple pattern recognition, a little bit of writing, etc. in the
case of 6 year olds (grade 1). In addition it consists of 4 levels, with each
level accommodating the continual development of skills and capacity as the
child grows.”
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