Namutuni Primary School provides top learning environment

Johanna Elina Ndapanda Asino, principal of Namutuni Primary School, has been in the education industry for the past 32 years, first as a teacher, then a head of department, and now a school principal.

The school opened its doors in January 1962 as Namutuni Hoer Primere Skool.

The school was led by five principals until the current principal, Asino, took over in 2016.

"Throughout its existence, it has been known as a school that was very active not only academically but in sports as well. The school also has a history of hosting beauty contests that are still done to this date."

Namutuni is an Oshiwambo name (Omutuni/Ekuma), which means shore, land, barrier or wall.

The school currently has a total of 952 learners and 31 teachers, plus one administrator and four institutional workers.

The mission of Namutuni Primary School:

? Is to encourage and empower learners to be self-reliant and innovative.

? To instil in them a spirit of emancipation

? To become responsible citizens

? To promote academic, spiritual, cultural, physical and social aspects of education with strong moral values.

The Vision of the School:

? We are committed to provide the best learning environment for our learners, which will enable them to develop their talents to succeed in life.

Asino said the school offers, among other things, "a functional computer lab, science lab and scanning library, as well as a fully-operating soup kitchen."

The school welcomes community involvement in the school’s different activities.

The school is currently planning a number of events for the end of the year, which include a carol night that will take place on 10 November.

A grade seven farewell and orientation for the newly admitted grades 0 and 1 of 2023 will also take place.

The school cares for the well-being of both the learners and the parents.

"We call parents in and do counselling where we mostly talk to them and encourage transparent relationships and improve discipline. The school, however, has put in place rules and regulations as a form of implementing discipline to follow. Failure to comply will result in detention and cleaning up the school as an alternative."

A number of activities play an important role at the school:

• Drum majorities

• Athletics

• Soccer

• Netball

• Hockey

• Chess

Academically the school is involved in activities like:

• Spelling Bees

• Quizzes

• Readathons

• Science fair

• Prize giving

Joy Gabriel, as the head boy, and Flory Napenda, as the school's head girl, spoke about their journeys as student leaders.

Gabriel says his journey as a student leader was and still is very challenging.

One of the major challenges that he wanted to overcome at his school during his time as a head boy was to address bullying taking place at the school. To address it, Gabriel would always try to intervene and advise fellow students not to turn a blind eye to bullying but to report it immediately to the nearest adult or teacher.

Similarly, the head girl also described her journey as being rather challenging. She saw it as a learning experience as she not only had to be student leader but also lead the learner’s representative council (LRC).

Napenda said that her plan as the head girl was to improve the standard of learners at the school in terms of their behaviour and mindset towards their schoolwork.

"It’s very difficult being a leader because sometimes just doing your job upsets the people closest to you, but you have to stick to your role as an LRC," Napenda said.