Learning is holistic

The school is Mandume Primary School, located in the heart of Katutura’s Ovambo location. The school opened its doors on 26 January 1962, and it was known as the Ovambo Gemeenskap Skool. It was opened at time when segregation was rife and the ‘divide and rule’ concept was in operation. Tribes were grouped in different locations. Doors of houses in the location were marked with an ‘OV’ representing the tribe ‘Ovambo’. The school started with 150 learners and seven teachers. It was until the 1970s when the surrounding community wanted to do away with the ideology of the school only taking in Ovambo learners. People were starting to integrate with tribes mixing up, there was a need to accommodate children from other tribes at the school. The community then decided to accompany the system change with a name change too. The school was named Mandume Primary School - after the Oukwanyama King Mandume Ndemufayo, an iconic leader who challenged both the South African and Portuguese presence in northern Namibia. With Oshivambo and Afrikaans as the mediums of instruction at the time, the school was one known for its strong stance on discipline and educating young bright minds. After independence, the school continued with its rich inheritance of history and academic deliverance. Rgarding academics and the right grooming approach used by the school, Mandume Primary School is known to have produced influential figures in today’s society. The likes of Sam Nujoma, Nicko Kaiyamo, Lukas Nanyemba, Bale Stephanus and Martin Shipanga, just to mention a few, wore the blue shirts and grey shorts of Mandume Primary School. Since independence, the school has done away with the teaching of Afrikaans. Learners at the school are only taught in English and Oshindonga/Oshikwanyama. The school, however, has children who are non-Oshivambo who have settled well in the system. A new direction “In the beginning, the aim was to fight for education. Now that we get education, we fight to build strong minds,” says current school principle Robert Dishena. “Our learners are in demand and high schools continue to prefer learners from our school,” added Dishena. Learners from the school feature at both regional and national competitions such as the Spelling Bee and others. Mandume Primary School has always been known to be a strong opponent in sports of all codes. The school recently won the first Primary School League. This is despite the fact that the school does not have any sport facilities. “We do not have a sports field but we have good athletes. So even without training facilities, we perform better than those who have the luxury and this is basically just from the commitment of the learners who are willing to look beyond the circumstances,” said the principle. Dishena added that they would most of the times utilise other school’s sports fields but on their school’s premises, they would use the corridors or the parking space to do a few things. The school has a forceful soccer and basketball team and they have recently started with tennis. “A child who leaves Mandume should not find it hard to participate in sport activities at high school and that is why we brought in tennis. A child should actually have an open field to apply to any school and to take part in any sport that is there,” says Dishena. The recipe According to Dishena, what makes the school special is the fact that everything is made clear from day one. At the beginning of the year, learners are oriented through the rules and given targets. These targets are closely monitored by the teachers. Those who were not committed at the beginning will eventual fall in and replicate the recipe to succeed. “How they enter in the system and how they adjust to the system. We orient them that this is how we do things here. It is the same with the teachers. There is a commitment expected from them. You enter the school, know your duties, perform your duties and all will be just fine. At the end of the year, we then recognise the hard work of both the learners and teachers”, says Dishena. In addition to the required academic teaching, Dishena lamented that theirs is to do more than just the basics. “We do not only want to teach the learner the basics such as school subjects. We need to mould the child holistically, morally and spiritually. All the values that mould a child into a child. We need to make sure that the learners who go out there are really who we want them to be. If we sent out learners who are not ready, our reputation goes down the drain because these are learners who we had for seven years to transform.” A school high on discipline and moulding a child the right way, Dishena recognises the efforts and involvement of the parents towards the upbringing of the learners. “A child must be disciplined in primary school before leaving to high school,” he said. Currently with 823 learners and 28 teachers, Dishena has a vision to grow the school and keep it growing. I want Mandume to be the school of choice. I want us to keep improving at all times. I want every teacher and learner at the school to know their responsibility. Together as a team we can make it,” concluded the headmaster. FIKAMENI MATHIAS