Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Directorate of Education in the //Kharas region is improving school and hostel infrastructure to accommodate the demand for placement and to better the teacher-pupil ratio.
The Namibian earlier this year reported the region required 61 new classrooms.
The //Kharas region at the time had 211 pupils on a waiting list, who have since all been placed, says the deputy director of education for the region, Jasmine Magermann.
She says since then the region obtained support from the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture through the Capital Projects Development fund, supported by international agencies and local businesses, one new primary school was built at Vaalgras, as well as additional classrooms at various schools.
Hostel facilities have also been upgraded.
“Currently, we are looking forward to the official inauguration of the newly built state-of-the-art Vaalgras Primary School, which will take place towards the beginning of the second semester of the 2022 academic year.
“The school was built for an amount exceeding N$100 million,” Magermann says.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has committed funding to renovate hostels at Lordsville Secondary School and Ernst Jager Combined School at Karasburg.
The renovations to the Lordsville school hostel have been completed at a cost of N$ 21,8 million while renovations at the Ernst Jagger hostel are underway.
The renovation process is said to be progressing well and the buildings are expected to accommodate pupils from the beginning of the second semester of 2022.
“The hostel building of Ernst Jager suffered great damage in a fire last year, and is therefore being renovated. This will be a separate cost from the N$21 million for the Lordsville hostel, but we will only know its total cost upon completion,” Magermann says.
Eight classrooms are under construction at Aussenkehr Primary School, supported by the MTC Rural Schools’ Project, while five pre-primary classrooms are being built in four constituencies with the support of the European Union to the tune of almost N$3 million.
These classrooms involve one each at SC Vries Primary School at Snyfontein, Nautilus Primary School at Lüderitz, Karasburg Primary School at Karasburg, and two classrooms at Aussenkehr Primary School at Farm Aussenkehr.
The Anglo-American Namibia Foundation is expected to make funds available for the construction of classrooms and ablution facilities of Oosterheim Combined School at Aroab.
Anglo-American Namibia country representative Richard Cook says the company committed a preliminary investment of N$1,6 million for these purposes.
“The N$1,6 million was before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country. We are going to Aroab this week for a site visit to the school to assess the needs once again and proceed with planning for the project, including the drafting of a new budget.
“Thereafter we will know what the investment will be,” he says.
The rebuilding of two prefabricated classrooms which were destroyed by a windstorm at the beginning of this year also commenced at the Aussenkehr Primary School for an amount of N$791 884,25 from taxpayers’ money.
A further N$1,9 million was provided by the state to fund the upgrading and renovation of the boys’ hostel at Ariamsvlei Primary School for N$796 370,04, a rain-damaged ceiling and roof of Nautilus Primary School at Lüderitz for N$361 119,93 and the hostel of PK de Villiers Secondary School at Keetmanshoop for N$436 757,40.
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