Ongwediva
While many parents were seen flocking to schools to look for placement for their learners on Monday, Oshikoto education director Lameck Kafidi has assured parents that they will accommodate all school-going children in the region.
According to Kafidi, the region’s school-going population stood at 65 516 learners last year and this figure is expected to rise following a regional campaign to sensitise parents in the far-flung areas to send all school-aged children to school. The regional education director remains optimistic that no child will be left without placement.
While the region awaits the actual data of the number of learners that have been placed from the schools today, the education director said 2 643 learners have already been placed in Grade 11, including 2 438 learners that qualified for Grade 11 in last year’s examinations.
“Last year we had 7 111 learners in Grade one, 6 860 in Grade 8 and 2 611 in Grade 11, but we cannot rely on the figures we have on paper to determine the number of learners we have to place overall. We will need to get actual figures from the schools tomorrow,” Kafidi said in an interview with New Era on Monday. He said the region has also introduced two new secondary Schools, namely Emanya Secondary School in Onyaanya and Josef Asino Secondary School in Onayena to cater for the growing number of learners in the region.
“If you are expecting a bumper harvest you are likely to have more problems, hence you have to plan in advance to respond to the problems and that is why we created the two new secondary schools,” Kafidi explained. The two schools are not boarding schools though. Kafidi is of the view that the region cannot create hostels overnight, but equally “we cannot expect anyone to come and solve our problems, we have to solve our problems ourselves,” he said.
Oshikoto Region last year maintained the top position in the school league tables, scoring 73.38 percent pass rate in the Grade 10 national examinations, a significant increase from 67.4 percent in 2014. Kafidi was content with the Grade 10 pass rate in 2015, noting proudly that last year was the fourth time the region had obtained over 70 percent in the Grade 10 examinations.
The regional education director encouraged the 866 learners who did not pass to improve their results through NAMCOL and other institutions. He said the region would work closely with the schools that have performed poorly to improve academic results in 2016.