Epukiro school hostel closed – no money

CHILDREN attending the Epukiro Roman Catholic Primary School in the Omaheke Region and make use of the adjoining hostel had to stay at home on Tuesday because there is no money to feed them.

The Epukiro RC Primary School has been waiting for the annual Government subsidy cheque since the start of this year. The school sent a letter to the parents of hostel children at the end of last term, requesting them to keep their children at home until the money is paid.This means that these children will miss school this whole week and possibly next week.The other three Catholic Church schools in the vicinity were in the same predicament, but received the annual cheques two weeks ago during the school holidays.The affected schools were Gunichas RC Primary School, Johannes Dohren RC High School and Mokaleng RC Combined School at Aminuis.All four schools together cater for some 2 000 children and a considerable percentage are hostel children.”When we at last received the cheque, we informed the communities via radio messages (of the NBC) to send their children to school on Tuesday since we could open the hostel again,” a nun from the Roman Catholic Mission at Dornfeld in the Omaheke Region told The Namibian yesterday.An official of the Ministry of Education in Gobabis said he enquired last week what had happened to the cheque.”I phoned our head office in Windhoek to hear what had happened to the cheque and they said it was being processed,” School Inspector Pecka Semba said yesterday.When The Namibian phoned the finance department of the Ministry yesterday, an official there could trace the date on which the payment voucher for the Epukiro School was issued, which was August 24.”I however do not know if the cheque has been printed,” the official said.Asked if the cheque had to be physically transported to Gobabis or even Epukiro, the official said an electronic transfer could be arranged, but normally the cheques would be sent by courier to the regional office in Gobabis.The school sent a letter to the parents of hostel children at the end of last term, requesting them to keep their children at home until the money is paid.This means that these children will miss school this whole week and possibly next week.The other three Catholic Church schools in the vicinity were in the same predicament, but received the annual cheques two weeks ago during the school holidays.The affected schools were Gunichas RC Primary School, Johannes Dohren RC High School and Mokaleng RC Combined School at Aminuis.All four schools together cater for some 2 000 children and a considerable percentage are hostel children.”When we at last received the cheque, we informed the communities via radio messages (of the NBC) to send their children to school on Tuesday since we could open the hostel again,” a nun from the Roman Catholic Mission at Dornfeld in the Omaheke Region told The Namibian yesterday.An official of the Ministry of Education in Gobabis said he enquired last week what had happened to the cheque.”I phoned our head office in Windhoek to hear what had happened to the cheque and they said it was being processed,” School Inspector Pecka Semba said yesterday.When The Namibian phoned the finance department of the Ministry yesterday, an official there could trace the date on which the payment voucher for the Epukiro School was issued, which was August 24.”I however do not know if the cheque has been printed,” the official said.Asked if the cheque had to be physically transported to Gobabis or even Epukiro, the official said an electronic transfer could be arranged, but normally the cheques would be sent by courier to the regional office in Gobabis.