On The Rural/Urban Schools Divide

ALLOW me to air my views regarding schools as centres of excellence.

Having taught in the rural part of the country for almost a decade, I find it necessary to make a comparison between schools in the urban centres with those in rural areas. This comparison is based on the following factors: a) Teaching staff: most rural schools lack qualified staff due to the fact that many young education graduates prefer to be in urban areas.b) Physical resources: schools in the rural areas are ill-equipped compared to those in urban areas.Most of the schools in urban areas are former white schools so therefore they had an opportunity to be equipped earlier on.c) Access to information: it goes without saying that urban schools boast easily accessible information centres.The use of Internet and other technologically advanced information systems allow urban schools to have an advantage over their rural counterparts.d) Exposure to modern civilisation: learners in rural schools still live in the stone age.Although some are exposed, you will be surprised as to how many do not even know how to use an ATM card.e) Traditional management approaches: in urban areas principals go for workshops in management sponsored either by schools themselves because they have money or partner organisations.In rural areas, schools’ finances are in a quagmire because such schools mostly collect less SDF as a result of there being many OVCs compared to urban schools.In my view, for as long as the above issues are predominant, the education system in Namibia remains uneven, making the goals of access and equity, dreams of a lifetime.In order to level the playing field, Government should task itself with the following: 1.Re-introduce incentives to attract young professionals to the rural areas.What happened to the bush allowance? How about building accommodation units for teachers in the rural areas or reducing the tax rates for those teaching in rural areas? 2.Budget allocations for schools should consider the physical state of affairs of schools, for example: the allocations you make for a school like Oshikoto should not be the same as the one you make for Ekulo Secondary School because the former is a former white school and by virtue of that, is more advantageously equipped than the latter.3.Government should provide Internet access to all schools with computers or subsidise them.SchoolNet is providing cheap and excellent Internet service to some schools, why can’t Government capitalise on that and provide all schools with computers? 4.Regional offices must organise school tours because some schools do not have financial resources to do so.Tours will expose learners to some of the latest ideas and when learners incorporate these in their learning, it becomes easier for them to comprehend.5.Government should make it compulsory for all school administrators to undergo training to learn new management approaches.Why not put a compulsory Management Training Programme in place? Schools in Namibia can only become centres of excellence if planners study the extent to which the above variables influence the quality of education in schools.Gwala Alex Kamwi OhangwenaThis comparison is based on the following factors: a) Teaching staff: most rural schools lack qualified staff due to the fact that many young education graduates prefer to be in urban areas.b) Physical resources: schools in the rural areas are ill-equipped compared to those in urban areas.Most of the schools in urban areas are former white schools so therefore they had an opportunity to be equipped earlier on.c) Access to information: it goes without saying that urban schools boast easily accessible information centres.The use of Internet and other technologically advanced information systems allow urban schools to have an advantage over their rural counterparts.d) Exposure to modern civilisation: learners in rural schools still live in the stone age.Although some are exposed, you will be surprised as to how many do not even know how to use an ATM card.e) Traditional management approaches: in urban areas principals go for workshops in management sponsored either by schools themselves because they have money or partner organisations.In rural areas, schools’ finances are in a quagmire because such schools mostly collect less SDF as a result of there being many OVCs compared to urban schools.In my view, for as long as the above issues are predominant, the education system in Namibia remains uneven, making the goals of access and equity, dreams of a lifetime.In order to level the playing field, Government should task itself with the following: 1.Re-introduce incentives to attract young professionals to the rural areas.What happened to the bush allowance? How about building accommodation units for teachers in the rural areas or reducing the tax rates for those teaching in rural areas? 2.Budget allocations for schools should consider the physical state of affairs of schools, for example: the allocations you make for a school like Oshikoto should not be the same as the one you make for Ekulo Secondary School because the former is a former white school and by virtue of that, is more advantageously equipped than the latter.3.Government should provide Internet access to all schools with computers or subsidise them.SchoolNet is providing cheap and excellent Internet service to some schools, why can’t Government capitalise on that and provide all schools with computers? 4.Regional offices must organise school tours because some schools do not have financial resources to do so.Tours will expose learners to some of the latest ideas and when learners incorporate these in their learning, it becomes easier for them to comprehend.5.Government should make it compulsory for all school administrators to undergo training to learn new management approaches.Why not put a compulsory Management Training Programme in place? Schools in Namibia can only become centres of excellence if planners study the extent to which the above variables influence the quality of education in schools.Gwala Alex Kamwi Ohangwena