Address the root causes first
We are delighted by the monies allocated to education. Simply delighted. The amount of N$15.05 billion is gargantuan compared to the allocations to the other key ministries and of course, with the reforms coming, the monies are essential.
However, we are concerned that we are not dealing with the core issues. Throwing money at education is good and well but, it is a little like fertilising a field that has not been de-weeded. Education has been receiving good money for years and still, it is not flourishing. Our teachers are still ill-equipped, our classrooms are overcrowded and are falling apart, we do not have enough hostels, and the list goes on.
Horrifyingly, we actually celebrate school feeding day on 3 March, as a continent. We celebrate a day that indicates that our parents are too poor to feed their children and the school has to do it. And if the school stops, the children drop out. We should not celebrate such a day, we should hang our heads in shame that we are in a position that our parents cannot feed our children at home.
And these are the issues that should be addressed. Shebeens in neighbourhoods where children either go to school or where they live and have to study. Abusive households in which they have to live. Absent fathers and single mothers who work long hours having to leave their young children alone for protracted periods. Poverty so intense that there is no food at home. The threat of rape, and robbery, even though we cleaned the riverbeds, when they walk to and from school. Unethical teachers that exploit young children, a lack of stationery and the inability to buy uniforms for school, and this list too, that goes on and on.
So yes, we are pleased with the billions received by both basic and higher education but, until we do not address the social issues, the root causes of drop-outs, failure and under performance, nothing will change for us and our children will continue to flounder. What then will become of the Namibia of the future?
However, we are concerned that we are not dealing with the core issues. Throwing money at education is good and well but, it is a little like fertilising a field that has not been de-weeded. Education has been receiving good money for years and still, it is not flourishing. Our teachers are still ill-equipped, our classrooms are overcrowded and are falling apart, we do not have enough hostels, and the list goes on.
Horrifyingly, we actually celebrate school feeding day on 3 March, as a continent. We celebrate a day that indicates that our parents are too poor to feed their children and the school has to do it. And if the school stops, the children drop out. We should not celebrate such a day, we should hang our heads in shame that we are in a position that our parents cannot feed our children at home.
And these are the issues that should be addressed. Shebeens in neighbourhoods where children either go to school or where they live and have to study. Abusive households in which they have to live. Absent fathers and single mothers who work long hours having to leave their young children alone for protracted periods. Poverty so intense that there is no food at home. The threat of rape, and robbery, even though we cleaned the riverbeds, when they walk to and from school. Unethical teachers that exploit young children, a lack of stationery and the inability to buy uniforms for school, and this list too, that goes on and on.
So yes, we are pleased with the billions received by both basic and higher education but, until we do not address the social issues, the root causes of drop-outs, failure and under performance, nothing will change for us and our children will continue to flounder. What then will become of the Namibia of the future?
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Namibian Sun
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