Teachers living in shacks

Teachers at Onamatanga Primary School – deep in the forests of Uukwaluudhi in the Omusati Region - currently live in corrugated iron shacks they’ve built themselves due to lack of formal facilities.The one-bedroom shacks are used for three functions - as bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms, as the school has no ablution facilities either. As there are no bathrooms, teachers have to turn to the bushes when nature calls.The teachers use a makeshift kitchen – made out of wooden sticks – to cook for the school’s feeding programme and prepare learners’ meals.When Namibian Sun visited the school on Tuesday, the feeding programme was at a standstill – the school had run out of clean water, and had to place an order with the education regional office for its tanks to be refiled. This can take up to two weeks. For eight years and counting, teachers and principal Johannes Shaanika have reported the struggles educators face living in shacks due to the lack of proper accommodation at the school, but to no avail. Committed to the cause These teachers are resilient. Committed to educating the Namibian child, they share their worries with Namibian Sun. “This is a big challenge we are facing. This is our ghetto house. It is a three-in-one. We use it as kitchen, bathroom and bedroom at the same time,” Asteria Iipinge said. According to Natalia Kapolo, during the rainy season and in winter, their rooms get very cold, while they face unbearable heat during the summer.“It is hot like a microwave. We need government to build proper accommodation for us because we are really suffering,” Kapolo said.Echoing these sentiments is Maria Johannes, who said they are only able to go into their shacks after 17:00 because of the extreme heat during the day.“As you can see, we shove towels under the doors and walls to prevent scorpions [from entering],” she said. Shaanika added that during the rainy season, some of the shacks flood. He sympathised, and said teachers spend their time on school grounds as they cannot do lesson planning in their shacks.In fact, the teachers spend most of their time at school – even long after lessons have ended, he said.Learners walk long distancesOn top of the teachers’ woes, learners at Onamatanga Primary School have to walk approximately 30 kilometres to get to school. However, these circumstances are not unique to Onamatanga or the Omusati Region – learners living in rural areas across the entire country face these hurdles just to get a decent education.Some parents and Onamatanga community members have voiced their concerns about the situation, saying they fear for the children’s safety when coming home from school due to wild animals in the area. Need for extra class blocks Meanwhile, Onamatanga Primary School does not have enough classrooms. At some point, lessons took place in an open field. Now, learners experience what is called multi-grade teaching, with some joining other grades’ lessons to maximise the teaching space.Because the school is a stone’s throw from the informal location, there is also no rest for the teachers at night, as drunk residents who come from the cuca shops knock on their doors and disturb their sleep.

Teachers living in shacks

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-18

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Teachers living in shacks

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-18

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