By Wezi Tjaronda
SESFONTEIN
The Elias Amxab Combined School hostels in Sesfontein have no proper demarcation between the boys and girls’ sections, raising fears that this will promote sexual relationships between learners.
Girls at the school say they do not feel free in an environment where boys walk around as they wish and find them naked at times.
The girls are forced to dress in the bathrooms, which also have no doors to protect them from peeping Toms.
The school used to be a Rhenish Mission School meant for lower primary in past years. However, since the Government took over the running of the school in 1985, not much has changed in terms of infrastructure.
Principal Julius Kaujova told New Era on Monday the hostels accommodate children as old as 19 and 21 years, who need privacy.
“The lack of separation in the hostels exposes the girls and is a violation of their dignity. The girls are exposed, they are mocked and have no privacy,” he said.
Varivi Kenahama, an 18-year-old Grade 10 learner, said: “These hostels must be separated.”
More than five learners dropped out of school due to pregnancies, which could be attributed to this situation because it is hard to monitor the movement of the learners. But Kaujova was also quick to point out that he was not sure whether the culprits were from the school or from outside.
Recently, there was an attempted rape case reported from the hostels.
The principal said there is a file of correspondence from the school dating back to 1992 requesting assistance to build a wall between the hostels, but 15 years on, the problem persists.
Parents have also complained about the problem. The school is toying with the idea of asking the community to make clay bricks with which to partition the hostels, but needs to request the regional office of education for approval.
The school has 365 learners, 208 of whom are hostel dwellers. Although the hostels cannot accommodate all of them, the school was forced to accept more children because this is the only secondary school in the area.
More than 70 percent of the learners in the hostel are from Purros, some 100 km away.
Due to this, the hostels are also overcrowded and can only provide 50 beds and 80 mattresses. The rest of the children sleep on the floor.
Some of the rooms accommodate 23 learners although they only have three beds.
Hostel Superintendent Isaiah Nanhapo said in some cases, two to three learners share one bed.
The school, said Nanhapo, is in dire need of a wall that will partition the two hostel blocks, wardrobes for the learners to keep their possessions in and windows and doors for the hostels.
The fence is also broken, making is easy for people from the community to walk through the school.
Last Friday, the police arrested a man who stole shoes, clothes and cosmetics from the boys’ section.