Amarika
Residents of the poverty-stricken village of Amarika at Otamanzi in Omusati have called on government to construct a community hostel at their local school.
Villagers said their children only attend school up to grade four, as there is no grade five at the school. The local school only has classes to cater for learners from grades one to four.
This compels pupils who hope to complete grade five and up to look for placement elsewhere, but in most cases the San children tend to quit their studies due to the many challenges – financial and otherwise – they face.
Concerned parents said the school nearest to Amarika that can accommodate children in grade five and upwards is located at Etilyasa, some 60 kilometers away from their village. The problem, though, is that there is no hostel to accommodate them at Etilyasa.
Villagers spoke of the ordeals their children face under the desolate circumstances they find themselves in, when New Era visited the poorly resourced school, called Amarika Junior on Tuesday.
“The government needs to extend these schools and build hostels so that these learners do not end up dropping out of school due to the long distance they have to travel to the nearest school,” parents of the affected learners said.
Some parents said children who drop out of school end up getting pregnant and giving birth at an early age, because they are just at home and engage in unsafe sex practices, because their village lacks recreational facilities.
“Learners are giving birth as young as 14, while boys become slaves [on nearby communal farms] even from the tender age of 10 years old,” said one of the parents at the neglected rural backwater.
Amarika village is situated about 70 km south of Okahao in the remote area of Otamanzi. The school was established in 1960 as a missionary school. It was taken over by the government after independence in 1990.
This unfortunate state of affairs compels their children into domestic bondage and child labour, while some young people fall into prostitution out of sheer desperation.
The school principal, Abraham Haukelo, said the situation is truly demoralising, as teachers are aware their protégés may end up as child labourers. He said his office has contacted the Otamanzi Education Circuit to recommend extending the curriculum and also building a hostel at the school.
He said their request was turned down, as the teacher-learner ratio was apparently not on their side.
Village headman Simeon Kesheelialso echoed the principal’s sentiments, saying the situation is alarming and needs serious government intervention.
New Era also spoke to some of the affected children, who are now just idling their time away at home after grade four. Many feel they are on the road to nowhere.
Otilie Johannes, who at the relatively tender age of 18 years is already a mother of a two-year old baby, said she dropped out of school because the nearest school is too far away. She ended up working in a cucashop.
“I went as far as grade nine, but I dropped out because it was really too hard for me to go to school every day walking from home to Otamanzi which is 60 km from here,” said 19-year old Magano Akuvule. She is also a mother of a two-year-old.
Gabriel Stefanus, 17, dropped out of school last year, because he did not have the means to go continue to the next grade. All the children who spoke to New Era say they hoped to become successful in life after completing their studies, but the system is forcing them out.
Some are now working in cucashops for very little money, while others collect water in exchange for tombo beer.
The nine learners, currently in grade four at Amarika Junior Phase, are also expecting to join the other destitute children on the street next year if their predicament is not addressed soon.
Amarika School currently has 53 San children in attendance. The principal also said the children of the San at school rely on the government’s feeding programme for their basic meals, as their parents are too poor to feed them.