The agony of San learners

Bullying and harassment of marginalized San learners at school – even allegedly at the hands of their own teachers – is contributing to the high school dropout rates plaguing the community.Young San living at Eendobe in the Ohangwena constituency say they would rather be at a local drinking spot than being exposed to abuse from teachers at school.Hileni Paulus was in seventh grade when she dropped out of school.Paulus says the reason for her leaving was because teachers called her names.“I felt really uncomfortable. Teacher discrimination gets left out of the conversation in bullying a lot of the time,” she says.Community members claim the education authorities in the region sweep incidents of this kind under the carpet, and nothing is being done to discipline teachers tormenting San learners.Unheard, unseenPaulus is one of many San who government resettled at Oshana-Shiwa, Onamatadiva, Ekoka and Eendobe in the Okongo constituency in the Ohangwena Region. Paulus lives at Eendobe.She dropped out of Oshisho Senior Secondary School in grade seven in 2017. The school offered classes up to grade 10 at that time, but now offers classes up to grade 11.Many learners say they feel unseen and unheard and accuse teachers of failing to prevent and address bullying and harassment in their schools.“Teachers should be sensitive and look after us. But instead, they call us names. It hurts our hearts. Those words pierce through like a sharp knife,” Paulus says.Namibian Sun visited three centres: Oshana-Shiwa, Onamatadiva and Eendobe on Friday and Ekoka in May. Although schools are closed for the holidays, most San school-going children are not enrolled and have no desire to attend school, even though education is free in Namibia.Takatu Amweelo is 21-years-old. She too dropped out in 2017 while in grade five. She is now a mother of two.“If we can go to school and not get discriminated against, we will stay in school. The teachers are rude to us. They call us oranges. They also say we look like tired donkeys and many foul words,” Amweelo explains.Dreams“Even as parents we want our children educated and to hopefully get a chance to live a better life than we do, but with San people, once one of them drops out, everyone follows. It’s like a trend,” Maria Hangula laments.“We are here in our poverty and we will die here. No one is looking at us. This is why sometimes prostitution is high amongst these young girls, because there is simply no other way,” another woman, who did not provide her name, says.“It’s not for free and people think we survive on handouts. It’s not even glamorous. We live like we are in a cage. We are not being ungrateful, but there definitely has to be more to life than this,” Amweelo says.Eendobe is home to over 80 people, who live in 29 houses. Some live outside, with no room left inside the existing structures.A feeding programme is not currently on pause due to the school vacation.tuyeimo@namibiansun.com

The agony of San learners

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Harry Tjihukununa 4 Year Ago 27 June 2022

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The agony of San learners

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Harry Tjihukununa 4 Year Ago 27 June 2022

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