By Wezi Tjaronda
OKARUKORO Village, Opuwo
The Okarukoro Mobile Unit is in dire need of water to keep children in the mobile school.
The unit, one of the 43 mobile units of the Ondao Mobile School Project, has no water source of its own and relies on the community borehole which is now broken.
The school gets water from Opuwo town, which is 15 km away by donkey cart, or from the surrounding areas some 7 km away from the school.
The teachers at the unit, Uheua Ngaukuzeko and Mathew Mbendura, said the water situation at the unit was precarious. Sometimes they have to make do with dirty water that is collected from wells.
The unit like other rural schools has a feeding programme that provides children with one meal a day. However, at times preparing food for the children depends on the availability of water. The feeding programme is also one way of luring children to come to school.
When there is no water, children are asked to bring along whatever amount of water their parents can afford to enable the school to make food.
“The food is sometimes not enough because the water is little,” said Ngaukuzeko, the leading teacher at the unit.
The unit accommodates 80 grade 1 to 4 learners who learn in combined tent classrooms – Grades 1 and 2; and Grades 3 and 4.
The tents in which teachers live, classrooms, and chairs need replacement. The zips on the tents are broken and teachers fear crawling insects will bite them considering that the units are deep in the bushes.
The classrooms are also worn out, raising worries that children may get wet when it rains, while most of the camping chairs provided for the children to sit on need repairs. The teachers and communities have made wooden benches that children sit on.
A 5 x 5 tent costs around N$9 460, a picnic chair N$126 while a foldable table goes for up to N$522.
Ngaukuzeko said the school started with 80 children at the beginning of the year, but the number of learners gradually dropped to 60 now because most of the children have dropped out.
With the current drought, many children have moved together with their parents to areas with better grazing, while others stay at home to help with herding livestock.
The teacher said the school also needs more textbooks for each child to have their own textbook.
At present, three children share a textbook when all the children pitch for classes.
The Ondao Mobile School Project started in 1998 with 12 units, but has now grown to 43 units scattered around Kunene Region. The units from Grade 1 to Grade 7, which are staffed by 65 teachers, accommodate 1 880 learners.
Ondao is a traditional herb used to treat ailments. The name symbolises the ignorance among marginalised communities that will be wiped away through education.
The Namibia Association of Norway is the main sponsor of the mobile school project.