A number of children at Mix settlement, which is situated north of Windhoek, are missing out on education due to the absence of a school at the settlement.
As a result, some parents have decided to keep their children at home, as they are unable to afford transport costs to attend schools in Windhoek.
A community leader, Josua Ngomo has appealed to government to speed up the process of constructing a school in the area, saying the number of children stuck at home was increasing. Ngomo said the community members have allocated spacious land to the government to construct a school of which the authorities assured the community the budget was ready, however, there has been no progress.
“Our children have now become so indiscipline because they mostly roam around the street and go to the shebeens.
They have been left out in terms of education before the Covid-19 situation,” he explained. He said that most of those children ended in kindergarten and did not continue to other grades because their parents cannot afford to pay for transport for their children to and from Windhoek.
“This issue has started a long time ago when Nahas Angula was a minister of education to an extent that we contributed money to meet the government halfway, but we did not achieve anything up to date,” he said.
Ngomo said that they wish the government will speed up the process before learners turn into criminals.
“If the government is not careful, we are not going to have any productive people around Mix settlement area if these children are not going to school.
It is a pity I do not have the exact figures for those who did not attend school because the statistics are with our secretary.
The number will shock you because it is high,” he said.
Confirming the issue, constituency councillor of Windhoek rural Penina Inga-Ita, said the construction of the pre-primary school is underway and nearly completed.
“Things are done in stages, next year, the zero class will be here, however, the primary school will be constructed and then followed by secondary school,” she said. She further explained that there have been financial challenges, therefore, people need to understand that the government is now giving pressure for these projects to be finalised.
ljason@nepc.com.na