Otjijarua — If there's one thing that Mika Kazondunge prides himself in during his short stint here as principal since January, is that absenteeism among San learners is no longer a problem at the Morukutu Junior Primary School in the Epukiro Constituency of the Omaheke Region, after a majority of them have been accommodated in the community hostel.

Forty of the 51 San learners now attending this school are housed into this hostel. To realise this the school management has been compelled to transform its resource centre into a dormitory. Before this controlling the learners was a problem as the learners while stating with their parents would only pitch up during meals which the school offers only to disappear thereafter. But since most of them are now accommodated in the school's hostel, the problem of absenteeism has been dealt with. Not only this but the school also now seems to carry the blessings of the parents of these San learner who first did not take too kindly to the alienation of their children who could no longer stay with them since being accommodated in the schools hostel.

But the accommodation of the San learners in the hostel is but less than half of the school problems solved with the hostel lacking linens, beds and mattresses and blankets. Not only this but currently despite the school having been provided with power, the kitchen staff still find themselves cooking in the open on fire, and the children also eating in the open in the cold, wind and the Kalahari scorching sun during the summer due to the lack of a diner-kitchen. Obtaining help in this regard from the Government is proving difficult due to the current status of the hostel which is a community hostel. But all hope is not lost as the government has promised to look into providing the school with electric cookers in the 2015 budget.

Communication is also a problem due to the lack of internet services but sooner or later this may be a problem of the past with the Mobiletelecommunications Company (MTC) envisaging a tower close by. Already the school has approached the Hoveka Traditional Authority with respect to computers and as soon as the MTC power is up and running this would facilitate the school having internet facilities. Another headache for the school has been the lack of a photocopy machine that has been hiccupping school administration. Also two of the pit latrines at the school has been filled up and inoperative with the learners resorting to the toilets at the hostel. Likewise the showers has been inoperative for a long time now and due structural deficiencies there seems little that the Ministry of Works and Transport can do about this problem. As a last resort the school management has been thinking of converting the showers buildings into a resource centre-cum computer lab to introduce learners to modern communication technologies.

Thanks to a N$200 subsidy from the government per child, the school partly manages to buy wood for cooking, pay the cooks and to buy meat. Learners in the hostel gets four meals a day, the three main meals, which is breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as a snack during the morning break. The intermittent problems and difficulties that the school has been experiencing has by no means keep the school down with the school management pushing for average of A and B in subjects from the usual average of a C.