Zambezi learners back to school

By Simon Liseli

GRADE 11 and 12 learners of Zambezi region have expressed happiness for the resumption of face-to-face learning with teachers after their release in March this year due to the deadly pandemic coronavirus.

Learners happiness come after unexpected long holiday that was brought by the spread of coronavirus globally that continues hitting the world.

In Namibia the Executive Director in the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture Ms. Sanet Steenkamp announced last month that learners have been categorized into four phases for the resumption of face-to-face learning with grade 11 and 12 on phase one.

On June 3, saw learners returning back to school for face-to-face learning with their teachers, after learning from home for a certain period which they have described to be hard when compared to classroom learning.

In a vox pop conducted by the Caprivi Vision on the first day Wednesday June 3, 2020 of their return to school. Obey Limbo aged 19,who is doing his grade 12 at Ngweze Senior Secondary School , said school learning is good than at home because at school they do their work  under the supervision of their teachers, whereby they have time to ask questions and teachers does their best to make them understand.

“Learning from home is very difficult because some topics need teacher’s experience and explanation for us to understand, but at home there’s no one who will explain for you and they are lot of disturbances than at school that you may lose your concentration from what you are doing” noted Limbo.

He added that social distancing at school will be the major problem of learning, while learners learn from one another closely.

“Face masks is another problem and not good to us because it will add extra job to us of washing them everyday” he added.

A-17-year old social science learner Maria Nalishuwa who is doing her grade 11 said it is good to be back to school than to go for e-learning that supposed to be introduced in schools whereas only few learners have access to a sophisticated smart phone and networks for e-learning.

“Coming back to school is good though we are forced to learn while putting on masks that may sometimes make us not  understand our teachers in some cases because the voices may slightly change due to the mask that closes the mouth and face difficulties in breathing” she said.

She mentioned that learning from home was a quiet big challenge but they could some time try depending on how serious a learner is with his or her studies.

Nalishuwa described social distancing situation as not good as they need to socialize with their friends and it even prohibits learners from studying closer to one another.

Another grade 11 learner of Ngweze Senior Secondary School Helena Mwananyambe said she feels very happy to be back to school because she missed her friends and teachers for unexpected period that they were not prepared to stay at home.

In her view she mentioned that learning at home is bad and they are lot of destruction from family members that may make learners confuse with their studies while at school they have time for their own studies and face to face learning with their teachers whereas they will always remind them to keep on with their school activities.

However, she advised her fellow friends to adhere to COVID-19 rules and measures to keep their healthy in good condition and avoid loss of life.

She urged learners in all schools across the country not to take COVID-19 as a reason to absent themselves from school or play around but to keep seriously with their studies.

“I was a worrisome learner to study at home because some people were saying there will be no school for us only next year is when learners will be back to school, it was really a concern to me because I like learning and I appeal to our teachers to do their best, give us more work that will keep us busy for us to recover what has passed” adviced Hellenah.

A grade 12 learner at Caprivi Senior Secondary School, Maria Kambinda said she is very happy to return to school as a grade 12 ender and did not expect such time to come because of COVID-19 that continues taking thousands of people’s lives around the globe including neighbouring countries of Namibia.

“Learning from home was better because I was doing it by myself so I could determine my learning time and period. With social distancing is hard to me because I prefer learning with my friends especially when given home work, we need to discuss as classmates which is the other way of learning but we should obey regulations for COVID-19 because its very important” she remarked.

Kakoti John, a grade 12 learner echoed the same remarks of fellow learners that learning as a future of everybody it was good to have face-to-face learning with teachers than learning from home where they are disturbed and lot of confusions.

“We really appreciate this, we were not safe to learn from home and we could do nothing with E-learning, this is what we call learning when we face our teachers” he concluded.

Next to follow is Phase two (2) for pre-primary to Grade 3, learners will start on 22 June. On July 6 ,Grade 7 and 9  will re-open as on phase 3.

Phase 4 , will be for Grade 4,5,6,8 and 10 learners to re-open school on July 20. The school will close on 18 December 2020.