Regulations affecting spaces at Kavango schools

SOME Grade 11 and 12 pupils at Kavango West might have to go home as there will not be enough space for them in the hostels due to Covid-19 regulations.

The region’s education director Teopolina Hamutumua said overcrowded schools and hostels was a challenge to education in the region.

She was speaking at the Covid-19 centre in Windhoek during an update on school operations for phase one and two of Otjozondjupa, Kavango West and Zambezi regions.

“The overcrowding of hostels and classes has made it difficult. For instance, a class that has 60 learners will have to be divided in groups of three so they can attend their lessons in different sessions,” she said.

Giving an example of a hostel that has 743 pupils but whose capacity is 480, Hamutumua said the regulations will require that a room that would take eight pupils will have to accommodate four.

“If we are to observe the compliance standards, it means that half of the learners won’t have space in the hostel and from past experience, absence of space in the hostel means the end of schooling for them,” said the director.

According to her, most families in the region have no resources or means to rent out rooms for their children and there are no relatives nearby to accommodate them.

The region has 1 819 pupils for Grade 11 and 12 from 21 schools in the region. Having received a budget of N$42 million, the directorate will be supplying masks to the learners and buy detergents to keep the school clean in line with the fight against the Covid-19 global pandemic.

Otjozondjupa region’s education director Josephine Mutenda said 1 914 Grade 11 and 12 pupils have gone back to school and all schools are to adhere to the Covid-19 regulations.