ARRIVING at Ongha Senior Secondary School in the Ohangwena region, The Namibian meets Martin Shilongo, a teacher who says his business studies class for today will most probably not be a success.
It has been over 24 hours since he sent out a link to pupils via WhatsApp to join his Google classroom, but not one pupil has done so.
“Look, I have sent this link yesterday (Tuesday), but no one has joined yet,” says the business studies and economics teacher.
He is concerned that he and his colleagues will not be able to pull off e-learning.
Education is in crisis, and Namibia is no exception, he says.
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, many children were not attending school, and many schools were lacking the necessary resources, as they still are.
A study conducted by the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s Institute for Statistics in 2015 shows more than 100 000 children do not attend school in Namibia – despite free primary and secondary education.
The study showed a lack of parental support and social protection, poverty, pupil pregnancy, disability, grade repetition and a lack of access to water, sanitation and electricity as reasons for this figure.
John Gabriel is at home at Ondeihaluka, not too far from Ongha Senior Secondary School, with his mother and siblings.
At the time of The Namibian’s visit, the country is still under lockdown. On the floor is owela, a traditional game played by Aawambo, which keeps him busy, he says.
“It is a bit depressing for us to cope without lessons. And when I do get the chance to do online classes on WhatsApp, I have to borrow my sister’s phone, who is a Unam student and often needs it herself,” John says.
Adding to John’s frustrations is bad network coverage.
“It is frustrating. Your data would be finished before the whole activity or lesson is downloaded,” he says.
He says he has to do house chores during the day, so he tries to do schoolwork at night.
Namibia has received good rains and households are harvesting.
Shilongo says he was not too excited when the government announced e-learning.
“Reaching pupils would be a dilemma. I created a WhatsApp group for both my subjects. Only 10 out of 30 pupils could join, so I wonder if these are the only people I am teaching, and how do I reach the remaining 20.”
Shilongo says he records lessons and sends them to pupils daily. Some pupils complain they cannot open PDF files on their phones, he says.
When he changes the format to a Word document, they say they have run out of space, he says. His worst nightmare is that pupils do not complete assignments, Shilongo says.
According to him, pupils also abuse the WhatsApp groups as a social meeting place.
John’s mother, Emilia (47) Gabriel, has six children – one a second-year student at the University of Namibia, two in Grade 12, including John, one in Grade 7 and two in Grade 3.
Emilia says she is open to online learning.
“I try to have money for data, but the network is hampering my efforts,” she says.
“The disadvantage is that the person on the screen speaks fast and one cannot ask questions. I only have one phone and everyone in the house needs it,” she says.
“They want to go back to school. They understand not only Namibia is affected. We try to keep them home and avoid gatherings like meeting up with other children to play soccer,” the struggling mother says of her children.
Emilia says she worries about her neighbour’s children.
