Pupils sit on bare floors at Kavango school

A severe shortage of desks and chairs at the Ndama Combined School in the Kavango East Region has forced many learners at the school to sit on the bare floors.
A few relatively lucky ones make use of empty maize meal bags to sit on. The school, located less than 10km east of Rundu, is also battling overcrowding, with some classes accommodating 70 earners.
It has 2 420 learners in Grades 1 to 10, who are taught by 74 teachers. Morning and afternoon sessions are held to accommodate all the learners. Nampa observed how learners scramble for the limited desks and chairs available, something that teachers say makes it difficult to maintain discipline in class.
Some teachers, who preferred not to be named, said they cannot move around freely in classrooms to help learners individually with school work. The teaching task becomes even more difficult when it comes to marking test papers.
The teachers suggested that the school be split into two, with grades one to seven and grades eight to ten kept separate.
The acting director of education in the region, Christine Shilima, told Nampa that the regional directorate was aware of the overcrowding at the school. “It is not that we are not trying to address the issue of Ndama but with the little funds we have, we are trying to address the issue of lack of chairs at all schools in the region,” she stated.
She said 120 chairs were allocated to the school in April this year.
Shilima advised schools to fix broken chairs and desks.
She said proposals had been submitted to the ministry to address the issue of the Ndama Combined School’s overcrowding. However, funds for this project have not yet been approved. Shilima further called on stakeholders, individuals and private businesses to assist the ministry in procuring chairs for the school as the government cannot do it alone. She said plans are under way for a government school to be constructed at the Tuhungireni settlement in Rundu.

NAMPA