ONGWEDIVA – With schools starting soon, parents have been rushing to stationery shops to purchase school supplies required for the beginning of the 2023 academic year.
As usual, stationery were packed out throughout supermarkets, with parents and learners meticulously marking off lists provided by schools to ensure necessary items are bought and everyone is set for a smooth beginning of the first trimester.
Shops in Northern Namibia were full.
Tempers were frayed.
According to the line ministry’s school calendar, classes resume next Wednesday, 11 January.
The queues in Pep, Waltons, Jet, Game and Shoprite in northern towns were long, with some parents visibly frustrated with their partners and children. One man was shouting in Pep Stores, “Where is your mother; I have been looking for you guys and you are not answering your phones. I don’t even have enough money to buy all the stationery,” he shouted. Saima Negonga from Oshitutuma in the Omusati region said she has been waiting for more than an hour but did not get help.
“I am not satisfied with what government schools are doing. They are sending long lists of stationery but we don’t have enough money to buy all of that,” she lamented.
She further complained about the money she spends on transport to come to town since the nearest shops do not have all the stationery requested by the school.
“There is no difference between government and private schools. It is better to go back to the old system to start paying school fees,” Negonga said.
School fees were abolished at government primary schools in 2013 and secondary schools in 2016. – vkapaanda@nepc.com.na