Right Support Needed
THE San Development Programme (SDP) is one being spearheaded by the office of the Deputy Prime Minister to make sure that the San people are integrated in the mainstream of the economy.
Students under this programme are allocated flats with prepaid electricity and an amount of N$1 000 monthly allowance plus taxi fare calculated depending on the number of days you have classes in a week. Despite the flats and the above-mentioned amount, these student flats do not have any basic necessities that a person needs, for example a bed, chairs and tables. Which means these students are left with no choice but to use the given N$1 000, to buy a mattress or bed, clothing, a chair and table for study purposes, food, toiletries, electricity as well as printing of their assignments. Imagine N$1 000, for all that! The cost of living is increasing but the monthly allowance remains fixed since the programme came into existence.
We made several attempts to voice our concerns to the relevant authorities early last year and have even gone as far as submitting a petition to the highest authority in the programme but all in vain.
Only positive aspects of this programme are disclosed to the public, if not blaming the San students for the dropout and failure. With all the requests and complaints that fall on deaf ears, what performance do they expect from the students?
However, keeping in mind that it’s our lives, we do try our level best to meet the promotional requirements, in order to submit our results to the office as required. Nevertheless, everything in this world has two sides and should be addressed as such.
There are students studying at institutions that do not have resource centres yet require submission of typed assignments. For these reasons we went as far as requesting a bed, table and chair per student and a computer set per flat but all attempts were futile. Have the office or those in authority ever thought of the effects this may cause to the outcome of student results? Or have those in charge ever tried to look at the poor performance as being due to lack of study support facilities and accept to take the blame?
To conclude my argument, I publicly challenge the office or those responsible to go to any of the student flats and show me any of the following items to prove that they provided the students with a conducive study environment but they are failing due to lack of commitment: bed, table and chair, a computer per flat or even electricity receipt to prove they made sure there was light...
This is my personal point of view and has nothing to do with the other students.
Calvin Kazibe
Final year (SAN) student
University of Namibia