Education In Namibia - Some Thoughts

The rainy season has really started here in Namibia, making me really glad I packed a raincoat. The rain will come out of nowhere and absolutely downpour, complete with thunder and lightening. It's respite from the heat though, so it's more than welcome.

Today I had my internship, I took a taxi (taxi rides in Namibia - never a dull moment) to get there early so I can work with the remedial program. I sort of fell in to working with that class, because it has been hard to determine where I can be the most useful since I am here for such a limited amount of time, and only speak English. The remedial class is made up of students that are between 14 and 19, and most if not all are not in formal school. This is for a lot of different reasons- they were prevented from going to school when they were younger, they don't have birth certificates which prevents them from registering, they can't afford school fees (even though education is supposed to be free, this is often not the case) to name a few. These students work really hard, are really attentive, and really respectful. This past Monday I had the class on my own, which was rather daunting for the five minutes I had to think about it before class started, but they were really great. Usually I work one on one with them on reading or math skills, their teacher is trying to prepare them for the grade 7 exam but really the goal is to simply educate them as much as she can.

My students have really poor English reading and writing skills, not only because of the lack of education but because they aren't exposed to English regularly. It can be really heart breaking some days, because they've missed out on so many years of education that they very badly need. Also it's me, so I really want people to enjoy reading and have it not be such a struggle. Left out of the educational system, and with very little vocational training that doesn't require you to be a high school graduate, I worry about what will happen to these students and their peers in the future. At the same time, I am loving getting to spend time with them and even though I know that it was a miniscule victory in the grand scheme of things, when one of the girls told me today that she understood dividing fractions I was so pleased. Especially because goodness knows the last time I divided a fraction.

Having another, different experience with education really makes me think about its role in development and eradicating poverty. And makes me wonder why I always end up in teaching positions when I get volunteer and internship placements. I feel like I am learning a lot from my internship, and the amount that I am giving back is far less. I can't reconcile how an educational system can fail so many students, and I wonder how many similarities there are to inner city schools in the US, where obviously the situation is very different but there are still a lot of missed opportunities. It is hard not to be discouraged! And of course, I am left with the very familiar question of what can be done to solve such a multi-layered problem...