As learners start school for the 2022 academic year, parents at the Mix informal settlement north of Windhoek say they continue to suffer under a lack of education facilities in the area seven years after the government identified land for the construction of a primary school.

“We are suffering… We have been crying for a school for many years now and the government should yield our call. Our children are at home because there is no money to send them to school,” Lonia Tuliwali, a resident of the informal settlement since 2000, said during an interview with Nampa on Tuesday.

Community leader Jonas Nghifikwa said the government has promised to construct a primary school since 2015 and despite construction starting last year, the school still has not opened.

“We were hoping to have a school by 2022 but we continue to suffer the same fate. Many parents have children who are not attending school because they cannot afford the N.dollars 500 taxi fare per month or to send them to boarding schools,” he said.

Nghifikwa stressed that those who are able to enrol their children at boarding schools, are forced to send their children to schools as far as Ovitoto in the Otjozondjupa Region due to lack of primary schools with hostels nearby.

“The children are now on the streets, many parents here have odd jobs and cannot afford N.dollars 500 taxi fare and food at the same time. The last time the Khomas Region governor and the councillor visited us, we cried to them about the need for a school,” he stated.

Ndeshipewa Mwashekele stressed that the government should at least consider establishing a tent school as a temporary measure, noting that children in an independent Namibia cannot be denied the right to education due to a lack of education facilities.

“We will appreciate even a tent school and there are a lot of unemployed teachers in Namibia. There is no excuse for us to continue suffering,” she stressed.

Windhoek Rural Councillor Piet Adam told this agency the government has managed to build an Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre and a block of three classrooms with bathrooms.

The initial plan was to open the school in phases starting with Grades 1 to 3 in 2022, but the plan has been hampered by a lack of water and electricity.

“There have been stakeholder meetings regarding the issue of the school and the provision of water and electricity. The matter is scheduled to be discussed at the first local authority meeting for 2022 to ensure the opening of the school. The meeting will give an indication as to when the school can open,” he noted.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency