The Programme Basic Education Namibia

Target groups for the Basic Education Programme in Namibia are:

• All learners (direct target group) in Namibian primary schools, especially in poor urban and rural areas
• Parents and communities that will be further integrated into decision-making processes at school level

Mediators (indirect target group) for the programme are:

• Education officials at national and regional level
• Inspectors of Education, Advisory Teachers and Facilitators for teacher in-service training
• Cluster Centre Principals and other Principals within the school cluster system
• Teachers at primary schools

Apart from these two marginalised communities are supported especially.

Through the component Upgrading African languages (AfriLa) ) the programme also supports the development of teaching and learning materials in Jul'hoan, the language of a few scattered San communities in the very remote areas of northeastern Namibia. The Jul'hoansi are regarded as one of the most marginalized people in Africa with only limited access to formal basic education. In order to increase access to formal basic education for these communities, the Village School project was started ten years ago. This project comprises of five village schools in the Tsumkwe District and enables San learners from scattered villages to go to school. AfriLa is supporting this initiative through textbooks and teacher in-service training.

In the framework of the decentralized school cluster system mobile schools for children of the semi-nomadic Ovahimba are supported in the far northwestern Kunene Region of Namibia. Through this activity it is possible to provide access to basic education for this marginalized ethnic minority group. Through the AfriLa component the mobile schools are also provided with textbooks in Otjiherero in order to improve the quality of mother tongue education in the Lower Primary phase.