Free Education in Namibia, truth or trend?  

By Annelien P. van Wyk

Let me refresh our brains with the following, from the Supreme Law of the beautiful Namibia.

“Article 20   Education

(1)             All persons shall have the right to education.

(2)             Primary education shall be compulsory and the State shall provide                                                                                                                            reasonable facilities to render effective this right for every resident      within Namibia, by establishing and maintaining State schools at      which primary education will be provided free of charge.”

Let me continue to refresh our minds with an incident on which the Namibian reported about a large number of pupils at Rockey Crest High School that were sent home and locked out of school grounds because of unpaid school fees. (The Namibian News Paper dated 07/10/2009)

The school principal sighted amounts outstanding from the school’s development fund as the reason for this action.

School Development Fund (SDF), such a peculiar word for school fees.

Last year UNICEF proposed to the Government to abolish the SDF, who knows where their proposal ended up. Maybe some dustbin of some individual.

To send pupils home because of SDF is either as a result of utter arrogance of plain ignorance, because Namibia has a SDF waiver, however most parents don’t know about it.

Namibia claims “Education for All” (EFA), but sending learners home is a contradiction of EFA.

USAID presented a working paper for the abolition of school fees, whereby they clearly highlights that education is the main determinant of individual life-chances and an educated populace can achieve increased productivity, readiness for democratic participation and improved maternal and child health, including reduction in the rate of HIV/Aids infection

Currently EFA focuses only on primary education, but it should in fact be extended to secondary education. Pupils should be allowed to finish grade 12 under the EFA call.

According to the working paper, school fees and other direct costs that households must bear represent a significant obstacle to enrollment, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable children. Abolishing school fees will make it easier and less costly for these children to enroll in school, thus accelerating progress towards the achievement of EFA goals.

School fees are a significant obstacle to enrollment for many households and removing these obstacles invariably leads to a dramatic increase in the number of children in school, the paper continues.

So many students simply refuse to go to school because of the embarrassment and shame that they have to go through when school fees are not paid. Their names are been called during assembly and in class they are constantly reminded about not having paid school fees, the incident of the Rocky Crest Scholars is but one incident, there are many such unreported incidents.

The time has come for communities to stand together and march the uncomfortable march towards free education for all. It is time that communities keep the government responsible for their promises.

Also, the time is here for communities to teach principals and teachers on the rights of scholars, because it seems that they deliberately turn a blind ear towards knowing that which they should know.

Education for All is a right, not a privilege.