In a bid to ease the burden of overcrowding in classrooms, two new schools have been opened at Otjiwarongo .
The new primary and secondary schools are to accommodate learners who were previously taught in overcrowded classrooms, tents, and those in a platoon system from different schools.
Otjozondjupa Regional Council Chairperson, Marlene Mbakera, inaugurated the two schools, saying they will improve the quality of education.
The overcrowding of classrooms is mainly caused by rural-urban migration.
The two schools are Otjiwarongo Project Primary School and Orwetoveni Project Secondary School.
"Our educational needs in the towns are skyrocketing due to the increase in population as a result of rural to urban migration. This therefore calls for us to have a robust future-forecasted structure plan, together with relevant institutions responsible for availing land, such as the municipalities and towns in the region. This project school is now standing. It is something that came out of a crisis at that time, amidst COVID-19 and the region finding itself with an estimated number of learners that could not get space."
Mbakera added, "The government will continue working hard to ensure that children are placed in a conducive environment."
Otjozondjupa, acting Education Director at Uerivangera Tjivikua, says overcrowding negatively impacts learning.
"The learners of the two schools have been operating, they have been receiving tuition at other schools. secondary learners since last year. I had to attend lessons in the afternoon. It's quite a bizarre situation—a very strange situation for a secondary school. The teachers and learners were really inconvenienced because they could not even teach the whole curriculum for the whole afternoon. The time available in the afternoon is so short that they could not teach all the subjects. They had to sacrifice some of the subjects. Yet here we are. Now you have your winning school."
On behalf of the learners, the school head girl, Aquilla Damases, had this to say.
"We as learners are excited to be at our school and no longer have to go in the afternoon, and now, as it was said, we have to start as fresh. So I personally would like to say, I fell at home."
The second phase of the schools will look into expanding the primary school with blocks to accommodate pre-primary to grade 8 learners. as currently it is only accommodating 165 second-grade learners.
The secondary school will be upgraded to accommodate learners from grades 10 to 11 by 2026. Currently, only 300 learners in grades 8 and 9 can be catered for.
There is also a need to set up two school halls, kitchen facilities for the feed programme, and sports fields.