New Classrooms Built June 2012
Great progress has been made this year since the Namibian Government agreed to extend Ehomba School to a Secondary School. Grade 8 is now being taught there this year for the first time. Children in this region have access to Secondary study for the first time with the exception of the 10 students who we have been supporting on NZ Ehomba Scholarships. The new classrooms, library and science room are behind the children in this photo.
Ehomba League Table Results leap up!
Namibian parents have the benefit of knowing how their children’s school is doing amongst its peers. On the last occasion the schools in the north western region were tested for English and maths Ehomba was 29th. This year they are now 4th in their region. This is to the great credit of the teachers who have worked so hard on improving their learning techniques and Mary Green, our founding fellow trust member and lead teacher advisor to the project has run fantastic teacher training programmes on each of our last 3 visits. The results are a thrill to us all and we hope that those of you who have supported the project will take great pleasure from this achievement.
School Roll rises!
Ehomba is attracting more students this year. The roll is now 173. This is a big jump from last year and you will see that a number of the students in grade 1 and 2 are older learners. Just over 50% of eligible children in this area attend school and it often takes a mother months to get the necessary paper work in order for them to enrol a child but finally education is being valued and Ehomba is attracting new student.
Mrs Alexia Zauana Studying in Windhoek
With the support of the Trust for her tuition and board, Alexia Zauana is studying at the University in Windhoek this year to equip her better to lead in English teaching in the Senior School when she returns. She has just had her exams and proudly reported her results as follows:
Education research
63Governance 61,
HRM 62
English 60
Principles theory practise 60,
Computer 61
We are very proud of her achievements!
New Zealand Government to fund 2 new boarding hostels
We are delighted to let you know that the NZ Aid programme, from its South African division, is funding the North West Namibian education region to the tune of $100,000 NZ to have a new boys and a new girls hostel built at Ehomba. Miss Bernadette Jagger, the Deputy Director of Education for the region will oversee the project. With the rapid rise in numbers of learners this year this will be so welcomed by the teachers and learners alike. If children live within 5kms of the school they must walk each day. Children who live further afield can board for the school week in what are former army hostels. There are nowhere near enough beds for the learners so they double and triple bunk. This New Zealand gift for the buildings and some of the bunks and mattresses will add enormously to the life of the learners at the school. The hostels are expected to be built over the next 9 months and we will report on progress as it occurs.
Namibian visit 2012
Burton, Jenny, Garry and Mary Green and their daughter Shannon will visit Namibia in the second half of August. As always the trust does not contribute in any way to our visit. All the funds we raise go to the children, the teachers and the children and teachers of the wider cluster who feed in children to Ehomba School. Overall we are working as our primary focus with the teachers and learners at Ehomba but provide some support to another 30 teacher and 400 plus learner in the wide region. We are taking all sorts of materials for the school this year and will make an assessment on what we can most usefully do to assist the Grade 8s and the senior schools development while still investing in all levels. We will let you know what the next priorities for fund raising are in due course based on what we discover this time. There is still plenty to do. One thing we hope to solve are the cooking facilities and the food programme. Currently the children have one PAP meal a day and some supplement from the garden in the growing season.
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