Omaalala ‘Possessed’ learners to be treated today

Health officials will drive to Mvula Junior Secondary School in the Oshana Region today to medicate learners who have been displaying strange behaviour that locals have linked to witchcraft. According to Oshana Education Director Dutte Shinyemba, the health officials will be accompanied by officials from her directorate to treat those learners who have been acting strange and as a result have been unable to write their first-term tests. Last week Tuesday, classes at the entire school at Omaalala were disrupted after eight learners started screaming, rolling on the floor, crying and cursing. Locals have attributed this behaviour to witchcraft, with many convinced that the affected teenagers have been bewitched. Although Namibian Sun has established that some learners at the school from grades 8 to 10 have since written tests for some of their subjects, it was not immediately clear whether more learners were affected in the days following. “I cannot comment on the number of learners who have not written their tests because I just returned to the office and I have not been updated on the situation,” said Shinyemba. The decision to have the affected learners medicated comes after health officials advised the education directorate’s special education subdivision that counselling the affected learners would not solve the problem. Last week, the number of affected learners stood at 11 since the first episode was reported in February this year. When approached for comment, Principal Werner Muzanima remained tight-lipped and forwarded all queries to the regional director due to the sensitivity of the matter. “The situation is neither better nor worse. The truth is, the issue is too sensitive to comment without authority from the regional education director’s office,” was all that Muzanima was willing to say.