GROOT AUB - The Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture has approved plans for the construction of an additional primary school at the Groot Aub settlement in the Khomas region.
The director of education in the region, Paulus Nghikembua, told Nampa in a recent interview that the primary school is expected to be operational by 2030.
The rapidly-expanding settlement, situated about 60 kilometres south of Windhoek, currently has only one primary school and one secondary school, catering to a population exceeding 24 000 residents.
The surge in population has led to the overcrowding of classrooms at both the Groot Aub Primary School and the Groot Aub Secondary School.
Isak de Groot, the principal of the Groot Aub Secondary School, told Nampa in a recent interview that the school last year had three Grade 8 classes. There is now a possibility of that number increasing in the current academic year.
“We have admitted 181 Grade 8 learners this year, and there is a possibility that that number will increase. So, we might need an additional class,” he stated.
Additionally, the school accommodates learners from Farm Primary School in Dordabis, Nicolas Witbooi Memorial School, and Bloukrans Primary School.
De Groot said the school last year made use of a church building and library on the premises as additional classrooms.
“We have asked the directorate of education to provide us with extra classrooms, and we now have four newly-built classrooms. We are also privileged this year to have two extra teaching posts allocated to our school. I want to commend our regional directorate in that regard. When we ask, they provide,” he added.
In efforts to curb the high failure rate at the secondary school, the ministry has constructed a hostel to accommodate learners. The facility, although complete, has no running water and electricity, and learners have not moved in yet.
Nghikembua confirmed that the hostel was constructed to mitigate issues such as failure rates.
“The structure is already approved in terms of personnel. The issue now is electricity; and we paid NamPower for the connection. As soon as they’re ready, they will put up a transformer. We are also busy with water connection through the City of Windhoek. Some of these issues are not in our hands, but the hostel needs its water connection or a pipe from the reservoir,” he continued.
Nghikembua said once the new primary school is complete, they will start working on plans for another secondary school.
- Nampa