NEWS - NAMIBIA
| 2013-07-23Khomas needs 18 more schools
Clemans Miyanicwe
NOT READY YET ... Pupils like Martha Teophelus and Dula Andreas will have to wait until next year to see where they will be attending grade two as the construction of the new school has not started yet.
Photograph by Jordaania Andima
EIGHTEEN additional schools are needed in and around Windhoek to counter the huge backlog facing Namibia’s educational system.
The Director of Education in Khomas, Thea Seefeldt, yesterday told The Namibian that 14 primary and four new secondary schools need to be built to accommodate the classroom backlog as the authorities have run out of space.
At present, Khomas has 48 primary schools and 26 secondary schools.
Seefeldt revealed this during an interview about a project school in Moses //Garoeb constituency in Windhoek where 461 grade one pupils have been attending classes in 12 tents since the beginning of this year. Each tent accommodates between 35 to 41 pupils and two more will be added in the near future.
The construction of classrooms at the tent school was supposed to start in April this year but not a single brick has been laid yet.
This means that the school in Havana with grade one pupils only, accommodates just half the number of learners that a normal primary school would normally host.The pupils come from informal settlements in the area and attend school on empty stomachs as the school does not have a feeding programme since it was established in the beginning of the year.
“The project school was established to cater for pupils that did not get places at schools in the vicinity. The walking distance to other schools has been shortened by the school for the young pupils,” Martin David, Councillor of Moses//Garoeb constituency told The Namibian.
The project school is on land which is earmarked for a clinic and has 12 teachers, two institutional workers and a secretary in addition to the principal.
According to David, the tents of the school were set up temporarily until authorities from the Ministry of Education build a proper structure. The school has no name although that of the late Abraham Iyambo, Minister of Education, has been mooted, David said.
“The Chinese government was ready to build a school as a donation but people in the area refused to move from the land earmarked for the construction of the school where they had put up their shacks. The Chinese are building another school in Otjomuise instead,” David said.
He however mentioned that alternative land adjacent to the proposed clinic had been identified on which to build the school.
The principal of the project school, Beatrice Losper, said they have no electricity, no computer nor a printer at the project school.
“I am driving in my own car and petrol to print papers at government printers,” Losper said.
The principal and the school secretary both use their personal laptops for the school’s work.
Losper referred questions about the school building project or the feeding scheme to the ministry’s head office.
Marianne Goliath, a parent of the school, said most of the pupils come from poor homes, at times they scavenge at dump sites for food.
Goliath said that her daughter recently suffered swollen lips after she ate something at the dump site.
“Even just maize meal for the pupils will be a great help,” Goliath said.
A teacher at the school told The Namibian that the tents were “very bad” for the pupils. “If it’s cold the inside of the tents is also very cold and if it’s hot the pupils are sweating terribly.”
Seefeldt said that the tents of the project school will be relocated to a new area where the proper school will be built.
She said the land on which the school is momentarily located belongs to someone else.
“Parents must not worry too much about where the children will attend school next year as there is a plan,” Seefeldt said. She said more tents will be added next year to accommodate grade two learners as construction for a school will only be done around late 2015 or early 2016.
Seefeldt has, however, expressed concern about overcrowding in Windhoek schools urging parents to take their children to other regions also.
She said schools in Khomas accommodate between 1 000 to 1 200 pupils which is “unmanageable and unhealthy”.
Above all, Seefeldt expressed fears that the building of the 18 schools will not be completed on time because of the slow pace of funding. Harold Tjahikika, chief planner in the Khomas education directorate said the construction of a new school will cost more than N$20 million.
Recently, the education director in Ohangwena, Sanet Steenkamp, had similar concerns about the classroom backlog.
Steenkamp said they had a backlog of around 25 to 28 schools but that it will still not be enough to accommodate all the pupils in Ohangwena as the numbers continue to grow each day.
They will build circa 348 classrooms with corrugated iron sheets in the meantime to counter the classroom shortage in Ohangwena, Steenkamp told The Namibian earlier this month.
At present, Khomas has 48 primary schools and 26 secondary schools.
Seefeldt revealed this during an interview about a project school in Moses //Garoeb constituency in Windhoek where 461 grade one pupils have been attending classes in 12 tents since the beginning of this year. Each tent accommodates between 35 to 41 pupils and two more will be added in the near future.
The construction of classrooms at the tent school was supposed to start in April this year but not a single brick has been laid yet.
This means that the school in Havana with grade one pupils only, accommodates just half the number of learners that a normal primary school would normally host.The pupils come from informal settlements in the area and attend school on empty stomachs as the school does not have a feeding programme since it was established in the beginning of the year.
“The project school was established to cater for pupils that did not get places at schools in the vicinity. The walking distance to other schools has been shortened by the school for the young pupils,” Martin David, Councillor of Moses//Garoeb constituency told The Namibian.
The project school is on land which is earmarked for a clinic and has 12 teachers, two institutional workers and a secretary in addition to the principal.
According to David, the tents of the school were set up temporarily until authorities from the Ministry of Education build a proper structure. The school has no name although that of the late Abraham Iyambo, Minister of Education, has been mooted, David said.
“The Chinese government was ready to build a school as a donation but people in the area refused to move from the land earmarked for the construction of the school where they had put up their shacks. The Chinese are building another school in Otjomuise instead,” David said.
He however mentioned that alternative land adjacent to the proposed clinic had been identified on which to build the school.
The principal of the project school, Beatrice Losper, said they have no electricity, no computer nor a printer at the project school.
“I am driving in my own car and petrol to print papers at government printers,” Losper said.
The principal and the school secretary both use their personal laptops for the school’s work.
Losper referred questions about the school building project or the feeding scheme to the ministry’s head office.
Marianne Goliath, a parent of the school, said most of the pupils come from poor homes, at times they scavenge at dump sites for food.
Goliath said that her daughter recently suffered swollen lips after she ate something at the dump site.
“Even just maize meal for the pupils will be a great help,” Goliath said.
A teacher at the school told The Namibian that the tents were “very bad” for the pupils. “If it’s cold the inside of the tents is also very cold and if it’s hot the pupils are sweating terribly.”
Seefeldt said that the tents of the project school will be relocated to a new area where the proper school will be built.
She said the land on which the school is momentarily located belongs to someone else.
“Parents must not worry too much about where the children will attend school next year as there is a plan,” Seefeldt said. She said more tents will be added next year to accommodate grade two learners as construction for a school will only be done around late 2015 or early 2016.
Seefeldt has, however, expressed concern about overcrowding in Windhoek schools urging parents to take their children to other regions also.
She said schools in Khomas accommodate between 1 000 to 1 200 pupils which is “unmanageable and unhealthy”.
Above all, Seefeldt expressed fears that the building of the 18 schools will not be completed on time because of the slow pace of funding. Harold Tjahikika, chief planner in the Khomas education directorate said the construction of a new school will cost more than N$20 million.
Recently, the education director in Ohangwena, Sanet Steenkamp, had similar concerns about the classroom backlog.
Steenkamp said they had a backlog of around 25 to 28 schools but that it will still not be enough to accommodate all the pupils in Ohangwena as the numbers continue to grow each day.
They will build circa 348 classrooms with corrugated iron sheets in the meantime to counter the classroom shortage in Ohangwena, Steenkamp told The Namibian earlier this month.
