Education ministry suspends classes at Kavango East school amid water crisis

Classes at Ndama Junior Primary School at Rundu have been suspended until further notice.

This is because the school has not had water for the past four weeks. The education director in the Kavango East region, Christine Shiilima, made the announcement on Wednesday

The school ran out of water for almost four weeks, and the septic tank had not been drained.
More than 1 300 pupils and 37 staff members at the school are affected.
According to Shilima, classes were suspended after an assessment of the ablution facilities.

Pupils and teachers will be notified about classes resuming once an amicable solution is found.
“We will try our level best with the bureaucratic process to get a bidder to pump the septic tank within a convenient time to complete the process,” says Shilima.
Namibia National Teachers Union secretary general Loide Shaanika says the challenges at the school are not a new situation.

She says the situation is disturbing and there is no compromise on the health of the pupils and teachers.

“There’s no way we will still follow the same procedures to solve the same challenges since the year 2020,” says Shaanika.
Shaanika also says the ablution facilities are dirty.
“We are condemning the bureaucratic process system in the education ministry,” Shaanika says.