Poor turned away at schools

By: JANA-MARI SMITH

THE right of every Namibian child to receive a free education seems to apply only to children whose parents can afford school development funds, with which many schools cover expenses such as telephone bills, maintenance, cleaning products and toilet paper.

A group of women in Okahandja assembled yesterday after many were shown the door by primary schools in the area refusing to enrol their children for next year’s Grade One classes because the mothers are unable to pay the full fees due for the year.
“Enough is enough,” the parents said yesterday.
Although Article 20 of the Namibian Constitution states that all persons have the right to an education and state primary education will be provided free of charge, the angry Okahandja parents told The Namibian that their children were missing out on an education because primary schools refused to enrol first-graders unless their parents paid the full school fees due for the year.
And many parents who live in the informal settlements of Okahandja cannot afford to pay the annual fees of N$180 or N$200.
For some of the parents, this is nothing new. The group of assembled parents, mostly single mothers, who rely on sporadic earnings and receive very little support from fathers, told stories of children who are already eight years or older who have never been to school because they cannot pay N$180 or N$200 and schools refuse to educate their children.
“We are told we must pay in full. Eden Primary School asks N$200, and they refused to accept a N$100 down payment,” one mother said, who was allegedly turned away by the school this year after she was unable to make the full payment.
Ingrid Dauses claims she tried to enrol her daughter Aianda last week Friday at Aoro Primary School.
She says she was able to bring N$120, but the school insisted on the total N$180 due for the year.  
“They told me they want the whole fee. They told me to come back with the full amount.”





Agnes Haoses, who tried to enrol her daughter Otilia Haoses in July at Eden Primary School, said: “I arrived with N$100, but they refused to enrol my daughter. They told me to bring the full N$200. I gave them the N$100, I tried to force them to take it. Eventually they said they would save the money for me until I brought the rest.”
Gisela Oxurus is another mother who tried to enrol her son, Jabez Oxurub, at a school this month. She says she arrived with passport photos and all of her son’s identity documents, but was refused enrolment because she could not pay the school fees for 2011.
“I told them I could pay at the end of the month. I wanted to enrol him in the meantime. They told me they would not accept my child, even if there is still a place available, until I pay the money.”
A mother of four, Lucia Tsuses, said she could not afford the fees to keep four children in school. She is unemployed and her husband has died. The total fees due for next year have accumulated to a minimum of N$1 400 per year for two children in secondary school and two in primary school. This amount excludes the extra costs, such as school uniforms, books and other items parents are asked to pay for, such as toilet paper, cleaning items and further maintenance costs.
“I do not have the money. I must pay the house, food, water, school clothes.”
The mothers all agreed that they are fed-up with the fees demanded by schools.
“We as parents, as women, are the ones who pay the maintenance costs at schools. We do not want to do that anymore.”
Dorkas Shikongo, a parent and a former teacher, said: “The Constitution of Namibia states clearly that education shall be compulsory and primary education at state schools will be provided free of charge (Article 20).”
Shikongo has begun mobilising and educating parents on the Constitution and the Education Act. The assembled group said they will march to primary schools on Monday and together, as a group, try again to have their children enrolled.
“Most of us do housework. We earn about N$300 and N$400 a month. Now we have to pay the full school fees. Plus we pay for books, flip files, school clothes. That is an extra few hundred. We can’t afford it. I mean, we must also provide food for our children,” one mother said.
The group has also decided to approach the Minister of Education, Abraham Iyambo, to ask him to explain the concept of “free education”.
The group wants answers from the minister on why education is said to be “compulsory while many Namibians cannot afford to send their children to start Grade One.”

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