Namibia gets rural school aid and more facilities

WINDHOEK－In the far-flung village of Mbambi in the Kavango West region of Namibia, children walk long distances to school, but this will soon be a thing of the past with new facilities to be built with support from China.

One such beneficiary school is the Simanya Combined School in the Mpungu Constituency.

"The completion of a hostel and other facilities at Simanya school will make education more easily accessible for learners, giving us hope for the future," says Kativa, a village elder.

Chinese help for the school is part of its aid program that seeks to rebuild four rural schools in Namibia's Kavango West and Zambezi regions. The aid program includes the construction of additional facilities such as school hostels, teachers' accommodation, computer laboratories and sports facilities.

The construction work, marked with groundbreaking ceremonies in March and April, is expected to be completed in 12 months.

Egidius Siteketa, school principal of Simanya Combined School, says that its students are currently battling with various challenges, such as walking distances as long as 8 kilometers, to get to school.

Siteketa says students used to set up temporary shelters near the school to access education, but that brought additional chores, such as fetching firewood to cook after their studies, which made it difficult for learning. But with the new hostel facilities, students will get a better environment for learning as well as dining and dwelling.

The headmaster says that besides the construction of a hostel at the school, upgrades to other facilities are anticipated to positively influence the students' overall performance.

Titus Shuudifonya, the councilor of Mpungu Constituency, says that the construction of facilities has shown the Chinese people's good intentions toward the children of Namibia.

Ester Nghipondoka, Namibia's education minister, says that the Chinese aid will help tackle many challenges faced by the Namibian formal education fraternity, particularly the shortage of infrastructure.

"Chinese-aided facilities will not only address the shortage of space, but will create a conducive environment for learning and teaching, subsequently addressing other factors such as school dropouts," Nghipondoka says.

Liu Mingzhe, the economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese embassy in Namibia, says that the project aimed to contribute to the improvement of local education facilities and the welfare of the local people.

Liu says that China has continued to expand development assistance to Namibia. The Asian country has over the years implemented more than 20 development aid projects in areas of agriculture, transport, education, health, housing, border control, poverty alleviation, and disaster relief in Namibia, according to Liu.