The Ndama East situation and the bureaucratic attitude

There is a greater propensity for foreign students in a foreign country to gravitate toward one another. This was indeed the case for us in 2011 at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Dr Gideon Niitenge, now the ELCIN presiding bishop, was at the time studying toward his PhD in theology. During one of our discussions, I informed him of the first education conference, which was to take place from 27 June to 1 July 2011 under the inspiring leadership of the late education minister, Dr Abraham Iyambo. Our discussion turned to his student struggle days under the Bantu education system at Gabriel Taapopi Secondary School before independence.The message of the struggle was that a new education system would replace Bantu education after independence – a fair and democratic system that would neither oppress nor suppress. It was this promise that made them rebel against the old system. He participated in protest actions, unafraid of the consequences, because a new system was coming. Fast forward to after independence: he waited until he realised that the promised system would not come. He came to terms with this reality and returned to kneel before the same principal and school. In retrospect, it was a case of continuity within change. To use a Shakespearean coinage, it was “a tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”Post-independence promisesIn 1986, the United Nations Institute for Namibia (UNIN), under the late President Hage Geingob as director, published a study titled 'Namibia: Perspectives for National Reconstruction and Development '. This study was used as a foundation for setting up our education system. It conceptualised the function of post-independence education policy as correcting the educational wrongs of Bantu education, including its discriminatory and demeaning practices.In 1993, Namibia released an important policy document titled 'Towards Education for All ', which articulated the post-independence philosophy of education. It set out four major goals: access, equity, quality, and democracy. Having more than 500 learners taught under trees and using a bureaucratic approach as justification falls outside these goals. This is not what Bishop Niitenge and others were promised before independence.Another intervention was the transition from Bantu education’s teacher-centred education system to a learner-centred education system. One of the principles of learner-centred education is the importance of using the learners ' social context as a learning resource. As such, one cannot ignore this social context. An African learner has a strong connection to and is rooted in their immediate community. An educational leader who ignores the social context and assumes a bureaucratic approach to educational problems demonstrates a failure to comprehend a learner-centred education system.The social context in numerical representationAfter Windhoek, with 486 301 inhabitants, Rundu takes second place with 118 632 inhabitants. This is the social context that should inform policy, as opposed to a bureaucratic approach and attitude. A few months ago, about 1 300 learners in the Rundu circuit alone were without placement. At one point, a school in Ndama had 114 learners in a single class. The situation persists, with classes ranging between 40 and 80 learners. In fact, Kavango East has the highest teacher-learner ratio in the country. This social context must inform policy, not a bureaucratic attitude and approach.The bureaucratic attitude as a failure of imaginationLocating the embarrassing situation at Ndama East in the realm of illegalities and unemployed teachers is a misdiagnosis of the problem. Worse, arguing that there are 900 metres between Ndama East and Ndama South is to dwell on trivialities. Are there 14 empty classrooms at Ndama South to accommodate the 500 learners? Why are there tents at this new school? Let us return to the 900 metres.I schooled at Iipumbu Secondary School, and the distance between Iipumbu and Oshakati Secondary School is not even 900 metres – it is less than 20 metres. The distance between Rundu Junior Primary School and Rundu Senior Primary School is only a matter of centimetres. Only 20 metres separate Rundu Junior Primary School and Mbambi Primary School. The same is true for Rundu Secondary School and Dr Romanus Kampungu Secondary School. Again, only a fence separates Rundu Secondary School and Dr Herbert Ndango Diaz Secondary School.Are some informal settlements more equal than others?The same government employing this bureaucratic attitude has announced it is pumping N$700 million into formalising informal settlements. In fact, Prime Minister Dr Tjitunga Ngurare stated that “informal settlements have long been a challenge... these are challenges we cannot ignore. We must acknowledge the complexity of these issues and work to make lasting change.” There is no difference between informal settlements receiving N$700 million and Ndama East. Jesus said in Matthew 19:14, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them.” Why deny children the right to education? Why hinder them?But where does this bureaucratic approach and attitude come from? Historian Carter G Woodson, in his penetrating book 'The Mis-Education of the Negro ', seems to have an answer. Let’s listen: “If you can control a man’s thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told.”The situation at Ndama and Kavango East is a failure of leadership and planning. The education ministry must take urgent measures to ensure a conducive learning environment at Ndama East Primary School and that plans be put in place to build a permanent school for the community.*Professor Job Shipululo Amupanda is a member of parliament and the activist-in-chief of the Affirmative Repositioning movement. He serves as an associate scholar at the Friedrich-Alexander University.

The Ndama East situation and the bureaucratic attitude

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Namibian Sun 2025-12-23

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The Ndama East situation and the bureaucratic attitude

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Namibian Sun 2025-12-23

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