Money woes halt schools

Plans to construct two new schools in the Khomas Region are on hold due to a lack of funding. Khomas governor Laura McLeod-Katjirua said construction will commence as soon as funding becomes available.The planned schools are the Havana Secondary Project School in the Moses //Garoëb Constituency and the Mix Settlement Primary School in the Windhoek Rural Constituency.McLeod-Katjirua made these remarks during her State of the Region Address last week.She said in terms of 2017/18 financial year, the goal is to improve the region's national rankings in the grade 10 and 12 examinations by two places, and to improve infrastructure to match the ever-increasing number of new enrolments.“Despite the fact that the region has invested time, energy and other resources in schools and capacity-building for teachers, the results present a stark reality that more still needs to be done, if we are to improve our rankings nationally,” she said. She said the Khomas Region and school management will have to go back to the drawing board to critically analyse “these disappointing” results and identify the negative driving factors, while at the same time building and strengthening those positive aspects that have seen a number of schools improving their positions.McLeod-Katjirua said in terms of goals set for infrastructure development, great strides had been made, mainly due to help from developmental partners that came on board and donated classrooms.Despite the financial difficulties experienced in the region and the country at large, Khomas managed to construct a total of 40 classrooms at several schools. This included 24 classrooms and an ablution block constructed at Green Leaves Primary School in the Tobias Hainyeko Constituency, funded by government.Government also funded a further two classrooms constructed at Elim Primary School in the Khomasdal Constituency. Four classrooms were constructed at Olof Palme Primary School in the Samora Machel Constituency and a further four classrooms at the Groot Aub Primary School in Windhoek Rural Constituency. These were funded by the Pupkewitz Foundation.Six classrooms were also constructed at Auas Primary School in the Katutura East Constituency. Two of the classrooms were funded by the German embassy, while the other four were financed through the Japanese Overseas Grant.In addition, two containerised classrooms were erected at Monte Christo Project Primary School in the Moses //Garoëb Constituency.McLeod-Katjirua added that at least 25 youth from previously disadvantaged backgrounds in the region received scholarships from the Namibian College of Open Learning (Namcol) Scholarship Fund. The scholarships were awarded through the regional council to young people who could not afford to enrol at Namcol, but wanted to improve their grade 10 and 12 subject results. ELLANIE SMIT

Money woes halt schools

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-03

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Money woes halt schools

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-03

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