Adventures in Namibia: Ondau Mobile Schools

Today we went and visited the Ondau School Headquarters and 2 of their tent schools. The Ondau schools were set up and created to educated the children in the rural areas of Namibia. Seeing that many children were still traveling and staying with their tribes and adhering to their cultures, the goal was to bring them quality and modern education while still preserving their customs and traditions.

     Therefore, the Ondau principal is the head of the 45 mobile schools spread throughout northern Namibia (the farthest school being a 7 hour drive away). Each unit, or school, is placed in a region, and each of the 4 regions has a Head of Department overseeing the school. There are 79 teachers between all 45 schools, with each school having a varying amount due to the number of learners in attendance there. The largest school has 7 teachers, and the classes are mostly multi-grade. Throughout all of the schools, there is over 2,200 learners currently attending.

     The number of learners in the lower primary grades is high in registration and consistent. However, after grade 3, the numbers begin to drop significantly. Although this happens for various reason, one of them is that older learners who start school later become embarrassed of being with younger learners and drop out. Later on, the female students become embarrassed wearing their tribal clothes to school and being around the opposite sex. Because the attendance drops so significantly, currently the Ondau schools only go up through 8th grade, and after that the learners go to public secondary schools. That being said, they cannot wear their tribal clothing there and must wear modern clothing. In 2009, the Ondau schools had 3 of their learners graduate from secondary school that they had education from grades 1-8. In 2010, they had 15 register for grade 12, but have yet to receive the final scores if they graduated or not.

     Many of the schools travel with the various tribes, so their school house is a tent. The teacher travels with the school and sets up a tent at each location for herself. There are also tents for the learners, one for the boys and one for the girls, so that they can stay at the school during the school week and not travel back and forth to their various villages. Some of the schools, however, are now becoming permanent structures as the tribes have not moved in some time. That being said 5 of the Ondau school are now attempting to register to be recognized as their own school. By doing so, they would have more benefits from the government and receive their own principal.

     The question was also raised about having special classes at these schools. The principal then explained to us that children with special needs do not attend the Ondau schools as to not be a burden on the class and a teacher. The families of these children see the responsibility of taking care of and supporting these special learners as theirs and theirs alone. Having their children attend the Ondau schools is unheard of and not even thought about.

     After meeting with the principal and 3 of the Heads of Department, we headed out to visit 2 of the local Ondau schools. The first school we visited was one of the five schools that are registering to be there own, permanent school--Orotjitombo Community School. This school had several buildings, each with two classrooms; several classrooms for upper primary and several for lower primary. They also had a building of the student dorms, one side for girls and they other for the boys. Each of the students had a blanket and a small bag of clothes at each of their sleeping areas.

     Paula had previously done a teacher workshop with the teachers of the Ondau Mobile Schools, and a couple of the teachers at this school were ones that she had trained. That being said, these teacher's classrooms had several of the strategies and classroom decors that Paula had suggested. It was great to see posters, pictures and classroom rules posted on the walls.

    After touring the facilities and chatting with some of the teachers, we headed back out to see all the learners who were now gathering together. We had already greeted them as we first arrived. At first they had been quite apprehensive in wanting to meet us, but quickly they began asking for their pictures to be taken and posing in various ways. They now had gathered to sing for us and to perfrom a couple traditional dances. I still get chills thinking about them as they sang for us. One learner lead the group, not by force but because they felt lead to. After, Uanee had explained that out of the group natural leaders step forward to take the lead on the songs, it is not an appointed or chosen position.

     Once they were done singing 2 beautiful songs to us, the girls performed some traditional dances. They were very nervous and only a couple actually danced for us. The older boys then performed for us a traditional song and dance that they use before war. They use it to get them fired up for battle and ready to go. It was great seeing their tribal traditions encouraged and fostered at their school. They had taken ownership of their culture and were proud to show us their customs.

     We then headed to another school called Ohungumure. To get to this school, we passed several kraals, fenced in areas that have several structures inside. Within the fenced in areas, each structure has its own purpose, bedroom, kitchen, storage, etc. The kraals are usually family, which include extended family, where each has their own bedroom home. These structures are made out of bring or a mixture of dung and mortor. Most of these structures are circular, but some, as you will see in the pictures by the school, are square.

     When arriving at the school, all the kids came running over to the school grounds. School had not been in session for quite some time because they had ran out of food. That being said, we had bought some maize, sugar and cooking oil at the store for them. We had left one big bag of each at the first school, and were now leaving some here as well. After we were greeted by the learners and the teacher, we all piled into the single tent that was their school room. Consisting of a few tables, 2 chalkboards, and a little bit of floor space to sit, the room was only really big enough to teach the learners who had run to the school grounds on our arrival. The learners then sang for us their good morning song.

     Jan had a book group that had donated school supplies, which we also distributed at this time. The learners and the teacher were all excited as colored pencils, paper, crayons, rulers, erasers, and books were pulled from the bags. We also gave the teacher a couple bags of sweets. She then told the learners that those who listened, obeyed and worked hard would earn these. Steve then also handed the teacher bananagrams. He explained the game, but also just showed the learners how they could make various words out of the letters. Although this game will probably not be used for intense bananagram competitions, as we do back at PLU and at our hotel, it is a great manipulative tool to help them work on their English.

     The learners then began to look through the various materials we brought--coloring, reading, drawing, etc. We all began to interact with the kids and enjoy spending time with all of them. Toto, Tomo, and Rukeekno were the three boys that I stayed by while they were drawing. I quickly realized that all of their self-portraits looked similar, other than the names on their shirts saying their own name.
Our cameras then became the new thing to use, so many of us taught them how to use our cameras and let them take pictures and show each other. Their smiles lit up the entire tent, and despite the heat from the close quarters we were all standing in, it didn't seem to matter.

     We headed back to the lodge along the bumpy, dirt and gravel road. We relaxed for a while, and then headed to our dinner--a braai. The owner of the lodge had 2 children that we hung out with and played with while we were they during our free time--Carla (8 years old) and Alle (3 years old). These two were also at the braai, which made it even more fun and entertaining. As we watched the sunset over the mountains and through the trees, it was the perfect evening. We ate some amazing food, shared some great jokes, and enjoyed each other's company. All in all, it was a great ending to our last night in Opuwo.