Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) has announced that the 2025 beneficiaries for The MTC Rural Schools Project are Donkerbos Primary School and Shaanika Nashilongo Senior Secondary School.
Donkerbos Primary school is situated in the remote settlement of Rietfontein within the Otjombinde Constituency, Omaheke Region, situated some 260 kilometres from the regional capital Gobabis.
The settlement is primarily home to the San Community. The school has 280 learners and thirty-two teachers (32) and serve both this settlement and the neighbouring Sonneblom. The school has only (eight) 8 functional classrooms – and needs an additional four (4) classrooms to satisfactorily cover its teaching environment.
Shaanika Nashilongo Secondary School is a school in Okahao in the Omusati Region. The school was founded in 1947 as a mission school of the Finnish Missionary Society. Previously named Ongandjera Secondary School, it has fifty-two (52) teachers and 879 learners.
The school is faced with learner movement challenges due to the inadequate teaching space – although it has hostel facilities – they remain unoccupied due to the lack of sufficient classrooms at the school.
The school has ten empty hostel blocks in total of which five are for the boys and another five for the girls, respectively.
Each hostel block can accommodate 32 learners, potentially 320 learners, however these blocks are empty due to the shortage of classrooms at the school.
According to the regional education authorities an additional (eight) 8 classrooms will allow the directorate to move some grade 10, 11 and AS learners from a neighbouring non-boarding combined school with poor teaching and learning environment to the senior secondary school.
According to Chief Brand, Marketing, Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer Tim Ekandjo “MTC is a national asset and corporate citizen committed to contributing to the socio-economic affairs for the well-being of Namibians and we do this through various CSI initiatives.
“We take immense pride, in our solution driven approach to CSI in Namibia, with the sole efforts to improve the socio-economic conditions of our country through the various national CSI campaigns we lead.” Said Ekandjo
The Ministry of Education has in the past indicated that the country has a backlog of over three thousand classrooms, we are on a deliberate drive to assist the ministry in constructing classrooms, particularly for rural schools to ensure that learners are taught in conducive learning environment.
Through the MTC Rural Schools project, to date MTC has been able build forty-nine (49) classrooms in 10 regions at the cost of N$13 million since inception of the program in 2019. Erongo and Khomas Region are the only remaining regions yet to benefit – with their turn set for 2026.
This effort is implemented through the MTC Rural Schools Project, which has to date built schools in ten regions. This year we will build classrooms for schools in Omaheke and Omusati, and next year we will cover the remaining Erongo and Khomas before we start over again.
“I should highlight that we work in partnership and with the guidance of the Ministry of Education “Friends of Education Initiative” which is responsible for identifying which schools to benefit from the program in a particular year, explained Tim Ekandjo, Chief Brand, Marketing, Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Officer.
Although the project is done in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, project management fully rests with the MTC Projects team which ensures that the construction is done in accordance with relevant standards and to ensure timely completion and delivery of the project to the end users.
The bid awarding process commenced January 2025, and the appointment of contractors is timed for end March – whilst completion of the two schools is expected by June 2025.