WIMSA Regional San Education
Programme

WIMSA’s new Regional Education Advisor, Yvonne Pickering, joined the team two months before the organisation’s contract with former Education and Culture Co-ordinator Willemien le Roux expired in December 2002. In January 2003 Willemien joined Letloa, the support organisation for San CBOs and NGOs in Botswana, as its Culture and Education Advisor. In November 2002, shortly after Yvonne’s arrival in Namibia, several meetings were held to acquaint her with WIMSA’s activities and particularly its Regional San Education Programme, and to discuss her terms of reference. The meetings were attended by Yvonne, Willemien, then Education Liaison Officer for Botswana Leslie Botsie, University of Botswana (UB) Education Outreach Officer Masego Nkelekang, UB and University of Tromsø Collaborative Programme representative Sidsel Saugestad, and WIMSA Co-ordinator Axel Thoma. Yvonne was informed about the different roles of the teams involved in San education in Botswana represented by Masego, Leslie and Willemien, and the participants were informed about Yvonne’s responsibilities. Her terms of reference make clear that her position is two-pronged: she will play a supportive role in the various education programmes in Namibia and a networking role among the role-players in San education across the region (including Angola, Botswana, South Africa and Namibia), with a special focus on the Southern African San Education Forum (SASEF).

Southern African San Education Forum (SASEF)

In a meeting in Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa, on 19-20 March 2002, convened to follow up on the First Regional San Education Conference held in Namibia in May 2001, it was decided that the body elected at the conference to oversee San education across the region should be called the Southern African San Education Forum (SASEF). The Chairperson of Namibia’s Intersectoral Task Force on Educationally Marginalised Children (ITFEMC), Theo Kamupingene, accepted his nomination in this preparatory meeting to serve as SASEF Chairperson for the first two years. Later on, WIMSA Regional Education Advisor Yvonne Pickering was appointed to serve concurrently as SASEF Co-ordinator.
In her capacity as SASEF Co-ordinator Yvonne organised the first official meeting of the body, held in Windhoek on 5-6 March 2003 – for logistical reasons it could not be held in Botswana as intended. A total of 12 representatives of government education departments, San NGOs and CBOs and San communities in Botswana, South Africa and Namibia attended.

The SASEF members at the forum’s first official meeting, in Windhoek in March 2003.

Standing, from left: Mathambo Ngakaeaja, Joseph Nangolo, Jomo Jonkers, Eric Martin, Yvonne Pickering, Sonner Geria, Philip Damens

Sitting, from left: Tomsen Nore, Pat Siyoko, Theo Kamupingene, Nxisae Nxao, Joram |Useb

Table 2: Current SASEF Members

The proposals from the Kimberley meeting were reviewed. It was agreed that for the time being the SASEF membership should consist of 3-4 representatives per country, and that membership should be limited to South Africa, Botswana and Namibia until the body is established enough to expand to the other countries with San populations, i.e. Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Also it was agreed that continuity in SASEF representation is very important. The duties of the Chairperson and Co-ordinator were expanded beyond those proposed in Kimberley. Among numerous other decisions, the members decided to commission the design of a SASEF logo to provide the body with its own identity, and to issue a newsletter to keep stakeholders informed of developments in San education in the region. The Co-ordinator was requested to make contact with Ms Mudzi, the Education Co-ordinator of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Botswana, where SADC is based, to inform her about SASEF and invite her to attend the body’s next meeting.

A hopefully temporary difficulty for SASEF has been “the Botswana government’s reluctance to get involved” in the body. The following extract from the minutes conveys the meeting’s decisions on the matter:

It was agreed that a SASEF representative should attend a Penduka follow-up meeting in 2003 should one be convened.

The development of San languages for use in school and the development of educational materials were issues discussed at length. It was revealed that in Namibia there is a curriculum committee – such committees resort under the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) – only for Ju|’hoansi because to date this is the only San language in Namibia to have an officially recognised orthography. The manager of the !Xun and Khwe Communal Property Association and Chairperson of the Regional Khwedam Language Committee was asked to find out if the !Xun and Khwe communities in Schmidtsdrift, Northern Cape, South Africa, will accept the Ju|’hoan orthography for their own educational materials. The !Kung in Tsumkwe West should likewise be consulted on this question.

Another point of discussion was that the lack of San pre-school teachers proficient in their mother tongue is a definite stumbling block for San pre-school programmes. It was suggested that a survey is needed in Namibia to gauge the number of San children now attending school as the last such survey was conducted seven years ago and a lot has been done for San education since then. The discussion of the presentation on developments in Botswana focused on the fact that the Government of Botswana had signed the UN convention on mother-tongue education, and on the question of employment opportunities for San who speak only their mother tongue.

The Co-ordinator’s handout on initial ideas for educational resources was also discussed. Yvonne explained that “dual-language readers would be used as part of the literacy curriculum but could extend out to other curricula and all readers will be checked to ensure that they fit with the curricula“.4 Further, “It was pointed out that adult literacy is very important for reinforcing children’s literacy, and parents and artistic adult community members should be drawn into this effort.”5 Philip Damens of NIED stressed that WIMSA, SASEF and NIED should share their ideas and co-ordinate their efforts in the development of educational materials to avoid duplicating work.

The situation regarding further study opportunities and employment for San youth, and initiatives to deal with San school dropout in each country, were other issues discussed at some length. The members concurred with the Chairperson’s view that SASEF should address the problem that San are not visible in most job sectors by determining ways to help and encourage San to find work. The understanding that there is a close relationship between employment and education was at the core of this discussion, during which the following points, among others, were emphasised:

• Some San leave their home environment to seek work, often far away from their community.
• Many young San men have entered the military.
• Employers claim that school subjects are still not helpful for employment.
• A great many San drop out of school due to lack of funds rather than of academic ability.
• San lack general knowledge and worldly experience due to their isolation.

These were some recommendations of the meeting:

• Authorities should take into account historical factors and help San to secure employment in the public sector.
• Tertiary education and training institutions should be asked to provide substantial support to San students.
• “San communities must also play an active, supportive and motivational role”6 in the education of San children.

The participants shared ideas and experiences in discussing how community resource centres or, as they are known in Namibia, Teacher Resource Centres (TRCs), could serve San communities.

Regarding the envisaged SASEF newsletter, the members approved the Co-ordinator’s draft mission statement to appear in the masthead, i.e. “Governments and San NGOs working in partnership to create a more equitable future for San Education”, and put forward ideas for the content. They also identified the taget audience, and agreed that Yvonne as Co-ordinator should compile the newsletter annually or biannually if possible.
The members decided to hold the next meeting in Botswana in March 2004, and agreed to forward to the Co-ordinator suggestions on themes and the meeting format within three months.

FOOTNOTES:
1 “Minutes of the SASEF Meeting in Windhoek on 5-6 March 2003”, p. 2.
2 They were referring to the workshop on San language orthographies held at Penduka, Windhoek, on 20-22 April 2001, which adopted “The Penduka Declaration on the Standardisation of Ju and Khoe Languages”.
3 Minutes of the meeting, op. cit. p. 5.
4 Ibid., p. 9.
5 Ibid..
6 Ibid., p. 10.