Emulating Saara
Six young ladies, all former learners of Amarika Primary School resumed school this year after staying home for around ten years because their former school only offered classes to Grade 4.
Saara Lukas, now 23, completed her Grade 4 at Amarika in 2005 when she was 12 and had to stay home. An orphan, she had nowhere to go to further her primary education. The nearest school where she and others could continue with their primary education was Erastus Shapumba Junior Secondary School in Etilyasa, about 80km away. This school does not have hostels to accommodate the learners.
Established in the Sixties by ELCIN missionaries, Amarika Primary School in Amarika village and Dr Ndeutala Angolo Primary School at Onghaanghaa were the only two schools in the area and only provided education from Grade 1 to Grade 4, until recently.
Following a visit by the deputy minister in the Office of the Vice-President responsible for marginalised people, Royal /Ui/o/oo in July last year, Amarika Primary School was granted immediate curriculum extension approval up to Grade 8 this year. Lukas and six others felt it was not too late to quench their thirst for knowledge and they enrolled to finish what they left behind ten years ago. It has been a decade since Lukas left school, she has hope and determination to live a better life if she finishes her schooling.
“I decided to come back to school on my own. After Deputy Minister /Ui/o/oo visited us last year and told us that we are getting additional grades, I started thinking about going back to school. When the prime minister visited our community last year, I made a decision to go back to school. She is my namesake and was looking more beautiful than any woman I have ever seen in our community, and I want to be just like her one day. The life that I have lived since I left school was not good and the only way I can improve and become like my prime minister and my namesake, is when I become educated,” a determined Lukas revealed.
She said she fell pregnant from an Angolan cattle herder in Amarika when she was 15. Her child’s father went back to Angola and her child has no national identification documents.
Another learner, Ottillie Johannes, 20, said she left school in 2006, but she returned with advice from her parents. Others who came back are Lyidia Ipinge, 19, Josephina Gabriel and Ottillie Jonas, both 17, and Leena Kashenye, 16.
According to Amarika Primary School principal, Abraham Haukelo, the six girls are eager to learn, and are not discouraged by their age. He said he now has peace of mind now that the school got curriculum extension and provision for hostels. He said it was a very demoralising situation seeing learners having their dreams shattered at an early age. At least the school feeding programme allows learners to attend school in high numbers. Before the recent upgrade, the learners only looked forward to becoming cattle herders. Haukelo said the status quo also provided fertile ground for the high number of unplanned teenage pregnancies, with some girls falling pregnant as young as ten.
The school currently accommodates just over 80 learners and only has four classrooms and four teachers.
Currently, Grades 2 and 3 share one classroom and teacher, while Grade 5 is housed in a corrugated iron sheet structure. Otamanzi councillor Johannes Iyambo said the school will receive additional classrooms and hostel blocks that can also cater for learners from Dr Ndeutala Angolo Primary School at Onghaanghaa which is about 5 km away. The tender for the provision of the needed infrastructure closed last Friday and construction is expected to be commence as soon as possible since it was declared as emergency project. Construction of teachers’ houses is almost complete.
ILENI NANDJATO
Saara Lukas, now 23, completed her Grade 4 at Amarika in 2005 when she was 12 and had to stay home. An orphan, she had nowhere to go to further her primary education. The nearest school where she and others could continue with their primary education was Erastus Shapumba Junior Secondary School in Etilyasa, about 80km away. This school does not have hostels to accommodate the learners.
Established in the Sixties by ELCIN missionaries, Amarika Primary School in Amarika village and Dr Ndeutala Angolo Primary School at Onghaanghaa were the only two schools in the area and only provided education from Grade 1 to Grade 4, until recently.
Following a visit by the deputy minister in the Office of the Vice-President responsible for marginalised people, Royal /Ui/o/oo in July last year, Amarika Primary School was granted immediate curriculum extension approval up to Grade 8 this year. Lukas and six others felt it was not too late to quench their thirst for knowledge and they enrolled to finish what they left behind ten years ago. It has been a decade since Lukas left school, she has hope and determination to live a better life if she finishes her schooling.
“I decided to come back to school on my own. After Deputy Minister /Ui/o/oo visited us last year and told us that we are getting additional grades, I started thinking about going back to school. When the prime minister visited our community last year, I made a decision to go back to school. She is my namesake and was looking more beautiful than any woman I have ever seen in our community, and I want to be just like her one day. The life that I have lived since I left school was not good and the only way I can improve and become like my prime minister and my namesake, is when I become educated,” a determined Lukas revealed.
She said she fell pregnant from an Angolan cattle herder in Amarika when she was 15. Her child’s father went back to Angola and her child has no national identification documents.
Another learner, Ottillie Johannes, 20, said she left school in 2006, but she returned with advice from her parents. Others who came back are Lyidia Ipinge, 19, Josephina Gabriel and Ottillie Jonas, both 17, and Leena Kashenye, 16.
According to Amarika Primary School principal, Abraham Haukelo, the six girls are eager to learn, and are not discouraged by their age. He said he now has peace of mind now that the school got curriculum extension and provision for hostels. He said it was a very demoralising situation seeing learners having their dreams shattered at an early age. At least the school feeding programme allows learners to attend school in high numbers. Before the recent upgrade, the learners only looked forward to becoming cattle herders. Haukelo said the status quo also provided fertile ground for the high number of unplanned teenage pregnancies, with some girls falling pregnant as young as ten.
The school currently accommodates just over 80 learners and only has four classrooms and four teachers.
Currently, Grades 2 and 3 share one classroom and teacher, while Grade 5 is housed in a corrugated iron sheet structure. Otamanzi councillor Johannes Iyambo said the school will receive additional classrooms and hostel blocks that can also cater for learners from Dr Ndeutala Angolo Primary School at Onghaanghaa which is about 5 km away. The tender for the provision of the needed infrastructure closed last Friday and construction is expected to be commence as soon as possible since it was declared as emergency project. Construction of teachers’ houses is almost complete.
ILENI NANDJATO
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