Reduced subsidy chokes private hostels

BUDGET cuts have hit private hostels as the education ministry cut government’s subsidy per child by half since the second semester.

Education permanent secretary Sanet Steenkamp yesterday told that government is only able to allocate private hostels N$12 per child per day, which is N$10 short of the N$22 per child per day that government paid in the past.

“Due to the reduction in the budget allocation, we will now only give N$12 per child per day,” Steenkamp said.

yesterday reported that the City of Windhoek last Monday discontinued water supplies to the Moria Grace private hostel over an unpaid debt of over N$13 000.

The hostel received their last subsidy in March this year while the ministry was reviewing the subsidising of private hostels.

Khomas regional education director Gerard Vries last week told The Namibian that Moria Grace was one of 22 private hostels that have not received a subsidy since March.

newspaper earlier this month reported that hostels run by the Roman Catholic Church in the //Karas region were struggling to operate after government drastically reduced its subsidy to the hostels.

According to the ministry, there are 124 private hostels across the country which cater for more than 21 000 school-going children.

Of the 124, 110 hostels with 19 675 schoolchildren are subsidised by government.

According to Steenkamp, government spent close to N$111 million on the subsidies for private hostels for 2016/17, at N$22 per child per day.

According to the ministry, 60% of the subsidy is spent on food, 6% on cleaning materials, 10% on utilities, 2% on transport and 7% on other uses, such as gas and firewood.

The highest number of government-subsidised private hostels is in the Omaheke region, where 4 817 children living in the 15 private hostels in the region are subsidised by government.

Matron Eorotheo Boois, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia’s private hostel at Gochas, said they have been living on the edge ever since the introduction of the N$12 per child per day subsidy.

Boois said they started receiving the new subsidy in the second term of 2017.

She said apart from having to spend 15% of the subsidy on salaries, the private hostel also used the money to pay for water, which is expensive.

“The N$22 was working very well, but we are really struggling with the N$12. The food sometimes finishes a week before the end of the month, but it is especially the water that is so expensive,” Boois lamented.

She added that they were privileged to receive a donation of fish from Hardap governor Esme Isaack.

The Namibian reported in April that government schools were ordered to close hostels and send children home three days earlier in a bid to save N$9 million on hostel catering.

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