Tent schools are not holding up

THE tents erected last week to accommodate pupils attending the Moses //Garoëb Project School and the Okahandja Park Project School collapsed over the weekend and had to be re-erected yesterday.

The children were still sitting on the ground, as the furniture will only be delivered in the course of today. Temporary toilets were delivered and installed yesterday.
The construction of the Hage Geingob and Moses //Garoëb Project Schools as well as the Rocky Crest Secondary School is still on schedule and teachers and pupils are expected to move into the buildings on February 2.
The Tender Board will also make its final decision and award the tender for the building of the Okahandja Park Primary School, which should be completed in the next three months. In the meantime the children are accommodated in tents.
The Otjomuise Primary School should also be completed soon and the children can then move out of their temporary tent classrooms. Ten prefabricated classroom were donated by the Airports Company for the building of this school.
It is hoped that the estimated 2 400 pupils who are currently accommodated in tent schools and attending afternoon classes will be able to move into their own school buildings at the beginning of February, and the estimated 300 at Okahandja Park within the next three months.
The principal of the Okahandja Park Project School, Ndapandula Shilyomunhu, and of the Moses //Garoëb Project School, Myra Griqua, are doing their best under the circumstances to register children and allocate teachers.
The principals are sitting in the sun, using boxes as desks, but both are determined to give the children a good start to their school education.
‘The children really want to be here and they want to learn. We do not have chairs or tables or anything resembling a classroom yet they are here each day in their school uniforms, ready and eager. We owe it to the children to give our best under the circumstances,’ said Griqua.