Maria David
OHANGWENA Regional Education Director, Isak Hamatwi has expressed disappointment over the continuous delay in the completion and handover of the Shituwa Senior Secondary School hostel.
The hostel has been under construction since 2016 and was supposed to be completed in 2017 and to be occupied by the learners in 2018, but it remains unfinished with the contractors currently using the outbreak of COVID-19 as the reason for the delay.
Situated at Endola settlement in Ohangwena Region’s Endola Constituency, Shituwa SSS has a population of some 900 learners enrolled for Grade 10 and 11 this year.
The government, through the Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture, in 2016 decided to construct hostel accommodation at the school to rescue learners from travelling long distances to and from school and to assist those renting accommodation in unfavourable places at the settlement.
“The completion of this hostel faces terrible delay, which is also a delay in the education at this school,” stated Hamatwi.
The handover was again suspended indefinitely on Wednesday, as the contractors are yet to finalise the outstanding issues of water and electricity connection at the hostel.
Hamatwi suggested that people claiming to be professionals should always do the work professionally.
The hostel’s kitchen and dining hall are the two areas where mostly the electricity issue still needs to be sorted.
School principal, Hendrik Nghinyengwasha on Wednesday indicated that it is a 600-learner hostel capacity being constructed, but 780 learners of the school are in dire need of hostel accommodation.
