Hamoroke nawa! (That means good morning in Thimbukushu, the language spoken in my village.) I just posted some pictures of school assembly, so I thought I'd tell you a bit about schools in Namibia.
The school year starts in January and ends around Thanksgiving. There are three terms and three long holidays: one month in April/May, two weeks in August, and six weeks in December/January. The learners attend school starting at age six. There is no kindergarten in Namibia, although there are pre-schools in most large towns and cities. School starts at about 7:30 a.m. and lets out around 1:00 p.m. Many schools have mandatory study times in the afternoon.
Learners are instructed in their mother tongue (Thimbukushu in my area) from grade 1 to 4. At grade 5, all subjects are taught in English, Namibia's official language. Namibia has an interesting promotion rule; if learners do not pass the exams at the end of the year, they repeat the grade. They can only fail a grade twice before they are automatically passed on to the next grade.
Some of the challenges that the school system faces are a lack of qualified motivated teachers, lack of organization from the top down in the system, and lack of resources for the learners (i.e. electricity & water for schools, books & school supplies, desks & chairs).
Skyla
Morning Assembly, Andara Combined School
Learners assemble in the courtyard on Mondays and Fridays. They are supposed to wear their uniforms, but many of them cannot afford a new one every year. The learners line up by class and the line in the front of the photo is boys in grade 10.
Grade 1 Learners, Morning Assembly
Many rural schools have a policy that all learners, even girls, wear their hair shaved very short in order not to have fancy hairstyles "distract them from the learning process". Suprisingly, very few learners make a big deal about this. But sometimes you hear them teasing each other, calling out "skeleton head"!
2 comments:
I finally figured out how to leave you a message. I am so glad you put this up, because now we can all keep you up to date on whats going on with you! I think you might have forgotten in the "things i miss about the US" the part about Paula Dean and the Food Network...love and miss you tons!!!
~Rylan
Hello Skyla,
You are so missed at the center and your letters are full of details and the kids love the pictures you put in your letters the drawing are full of detail and it explain about the living quarters. This has been a great year for the center I am up to 29 employees four sites, I will update our website and add your website to it. It will great to let them go to the website and for them to see you and the pictures of the kids in Africa. I would love to see pictures of the areas because you write about how beautiful it is there. Thank you for sharing your life in Africa with our kids, they are really learning a lot from you. You look good, tan, long hair and slim.
Reona Dyess-Dunham (Ms. D)
Post a Comment