Namibia weblog 2004In November 2004 Michael and Rosanne's Foundation Course was approved by the university of Namibia. Read all about it below:
Foundation Course
November 20th 2004
"Our Foundation Course received approval from the Senate of the University of Namibia last Thursday evening. We are overjoyed. We now have a course to sell and prepare for and this is what we were sent out to do. We will have to start teaching 60 learners next February and the mission is to repair misconceptions in Maths and Science and to give them a few essential science topics - but in very real depth - to kick start them into conceptual thinking instead of rote learning with no understanding. They will then go on to the first year of a Science Degree at the main campus. So with a course and no pupils we decided that we needed to go and visit the 24 senior secondary schools in the North of Namibia to recruit learners for our course. So three teams, consisting of Michael, Rosanne, Mark, Karoline, Paulina the Director and Dr Dayo the Dean in any combination have set off every day this week at 05:00 to get to the far edges of the territory and visit two or three schools a day. They are far flung and some are many miles down sand and gravel roads which have been made exhilaratingly slippery and bumpy by the recent thunder storms and flash floods. Rosanne and the Director of the Northern Campus went off to the North East on Tuesday to visit two very remote schools, Oshela and Haimbili Haufiku Senior Secondary Schools, down a long gravel road that goes all the way across the North of Namibia by the Angolan border. She says the drive was exquisitely beautiful with low snake-green forest, utterly empty of people, but with a few little thatched homesteads here and there. I went off down to the South East with our maths lecturer, Mark, to visit two schools, Ekulo and Otjikoto Senior Secondary Schools, in a very disadvantaged catchment area in an old mining town (the copper mines shut down years ago). These schools are really like concrete garrison huts, mostly with dilapidated furniture and broken windows and unbelievably cheery and diligent pupils, who of course want to stare and giggle at us. Today, Wednesday, we set off for different area. Rosanne went to the Central region to visit Onguti, Nehale and Uukule Senior Secondary Schools and I went North to St Mary’s Obido, one of the oldest schools in Namibia founded by missionaries in 1925. It had been abandoned during the liberation struggle and had moved South where it had suffered and had nearly closed. It moved back to its destroyed old premises in 1999 and they have been painstakingly rebuilding all the previous facilities. They have a long way to go but under the dynamic leadership of a visionary new young Principal, I have no doubt of their long term success - even though the school is simply miles down the worst road I have yet to travel on. We got an incredibly warm welcome and all of the staff were very keen on the idea of sending to us their disadvantaged pupils who have the right potential and sparkle. It has been fascinating seeing the whole spectrum of schools. Some are very run down and seedy but have dedicated and enthusiastic teachers and others are in much better condition but with rather a flat feel. The leadership and charisma of the middle managers and the Principal can make a deal of difference to the whole atmosphere of the establishment. The one common problem, however, is a chronic lack of all resources and laboratory equipment. Everything, shelves, seats, desks and books are all in short supply. Many schools have broken windows, flooded wasteland all around this week, collapsing corrugated roofs, loos which are not flushing properly, hideous overcrowded dormitories…its ghastly. We have a day back in the office catching up today and then we are off together to go to three more remote schools, David Sheehama, Mwaala and Shikongo Iipinge Senior Secondary Schools in the North West on Friday. So by the end of this week we will have visited all senior secondary schools within a 300 km radius of the Northern Campus. We have driven through dense bush, all a brilliant green now it has rained, flushed with spring leaves; through flat sandy desert with scattered palm trees; past the newly filled flat oshanas – lakes which come and go with the seasons, but when full are squirming inexplicably with fish - and we have thoroughly enjoyed the bumpy sliding slippery wet mud pools in the sand and gravel roads. We feel quite fluffed up and enthusiastic, having spoken so positively about our course and received such a tremendous response. Watch out for the reality of trying to plan and resource the course to dampen our ardour!"
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