Oshana Gymnasium opens doors next year

Ongwediva will soon be home to a brand-new, state-of-the-art Oshana Gymnasium Private School, which will open its doors in January 2024.

The school will accommodate children aged three to four in preschool and offer classes from grades one to seven in its first phase, starting in January, with a capacity of 200 to 250 learners.

During the official groundbreaking ceremony held in Ongwediva on Tuesday, Colette Rieckert, who initiated the Windhoek Gymnasium Private School and also doubles as the managing director, said the second phase will offer secondary level education, and construction will commence next year. Rieckert said full completion of the school will take about seven to eight years.

The school is being built by Prosperity Education Namibia in partnership with Curro Education Namibia and Ino Harith Capital. The Development Bank of Namibia will also provide financing, making a long-term investment of N$72.9 million into the project. Ino Harith managing director Fillemon Iyambo said they have invested N$104 million towards the establishment of the school.

The total estimated cost for the completion of the school project exceeds N$200 million.

Equipped to educate

Rieckert underlined the importance of children being happy to attend school.

She said the school will be equipped with the necessary infrastructure to educate and motivate learners.

"They should be excited to come to school with all the wonderful activities, the robotics, and the artificial intelligence. With everything they experience at school, they should reminisce about what a wonderful day they had," Rieckert said.

All-round services

She said the school will not only offer excellent academic support but will also provide opportunities in areas of culture and sport.

Rieckert said education has been one of her passions, hence the motivation to provide quality teaching and learning for Namibian learners, not only in Windhoek but across the country.

"After establishing the very successful Windhoek Gymnasium Private School, there was a huge outcry from other parts of Namibia wanting us to build more of the same quality schools in their regions," she said.

"Oshana showed eagerness. We are looking forward to building an excellent school where many of the children in Oshana will benefit from it and become excellent citizens and well-rounded adults," she told Namibian Sun.

Haven for top-notch education

Ongwediva mayor Tarah Shalyefu said four years ago, the Ongwediva town council committed to embarking on a process of sourcing effective services from private investors to develop new diversified products, which included high-quality education providers that could potentially mitigate the lack of high-quality education and development in the town.

"This is a deliberate effort to ensure that the town retains and attracts professionals who would work and live here comfortably," he said.

"In the year 2020, Ongwediva town council embraced a proposal from Curro to establish a high-quality private school with a holistic approach to learning and development with special consideration for sport and other extracurricular activities that will boost confidence and promote independent thinking by learners and students," Shalyefu explained.

He said the town leadership is confident that the new school will be a haven of knowledge, a place where young minds will be nurtured and developed to become leaders of tomorrow.