By Obrein Simasiku
WITVLEI- The high unemployment among the Witvlei community is believed to be the result of young people dropping out of school as parents are unable to provide for the basic necessities needed when attending school.
“We are experiencing a big problem with children dropping out of school due to the unemployment of their parents and they tend to move from one place to another with their kids in search of employment, which leaves learners with no choice but to move along with them,” said Allen Kakuwa the head of department at Nossob Combined School.
Kakuwa said those that are employed are mainly farm workers and often times they do not stay long on one farm and move somewhere far from the school.
Even though the school has a hostel it can only accommodate 220 learners of the total 802 learners enrolled at the school.
However, individuals that are given the opportunity to be in the hostel still drop out because of parents not being able to afford hostel fees and costs for toiletries.
Kakuwa said the school would open a Grade 10 class next year as currently the school only offers up to Grade 9.
The school also recently opened an information centre. “This way we want to mitigate the situation and attract more learners from nearby areas such as Omitara, which has a primary school,” said Kakuwa
Community members said offering Grade 10 at the school would enable those that failed Grade 10 to upgrade their results through Namcol unlike in the past when they had to travel over 40 kilometres to Gobabis.
Valerie van Wyk a community member in Witvlei stressed that the school development fee of N$200 is too high, adding that most parents fail to pay for their children due to not having a job.