Education

WIMSA's Regional Education Programme

One of the biggest obstacles facing the San today is their lack of experience of formal education. Racial discrimination, poverty, a lack of mother-tongue instruction, language barriers preventing parental involvement, rights abuses, bullying, travelling distances to school, the school ‘hostel system', misunderstanding of San culture and a mistrust of the education system itself, all contribute to an extremely high ‘drop-out' rate for San children. Many San children do not even complete their primary education. Fewer still successfully complete secondary schooling.

The WIMSA Education Programme was specifically designed to assist the San by focussing upon overcoming these barriers. The Programme has developed on the premise that some of the most informed advocates of San issues are those young San who have completed their education and who have already taken on the role of becoming active agents of change in San development. The Education Programme centres upon educational advocacy, early childhood provision, youth mobilisation, student support and language development.

Southern African San Education Forum (SASEF)

The original concept for a Southern African San Education Forum (SASEF) came about in 2001 at the first Regional San Education Conference where the delegates agreed upon the need for a regional task force for San education.

SASEF's vision is to advocate on behalf of the San with the ministries of education of South Africa , Botswana and Namibia . It promotes the exchange of information and ideas on San education between San organisations and education representatives and seeks innovative solutions to San education-related problems across the region.

SASEF aims to meet on a yearly basis and is comprised of educational representatives, language experts, civil servants, NGO development workers and other stakeholders.

Early Childhood Development (ECD)

WIMSA works with San communities in Namibia in order to assist them with providing effective and culturally-appropriate education for early childhood. This approach sometimes includes the physical provision and construction of pre-school buildings, assisting communities with securing the longer-term funding necessary to run them, supporting San pre-school teachers, and directly supporting older San students undertaking ECD teacher-training courses.

The importance of helping San individuals themselves to become teachers cannot be underestimated; one of the main causes of San children ‘dropping out' from school is due to a lack of adults at the schools who are able to speak in their mother-tongue. Although WIMSA's work assists community-based San pre-schools to establish themselves, the organisation also believes that San teachers are needed in schools which are not based predominantly in a San community.

Sadly, very small San children are often viewed as being ‘naughty' or ‘restless' by the extremely formal and often old-fashioned teaching systems which are prevalent in southern Africa. Sometimes this is because teachers from other ethnic backgrounds have no understanding of San culture. For example, San children – particularly those living in rural areas – are used to being treated as equal members of a community and the formalities and hierarchies associated with school life can be extremely alien to them.

If you are interested in making a donation which will directly assist WIMSA's Early Childhood Development Programme – click here!

Student Support

At the present time, WIMSA does not have the capacity or resources needed in order to help each individual San student throughout their schooling. However, WIMSA's student support programme works with both secondary schools and tertiary institutions in order to assist more young San to successfully complete higher education and further training.

WIMSA actively encourages young San to complete their Grade 12 (High School Diploma in southern Africa ), to upgrade their marks where necessary and offers financial and personal support to some students accessing higher education/further training. The programme tries to achieve a gender balance amongst students applying for higher education/further training and aims to facilitate the return of qualified or trained young San to their communities so that they can use their skills and knowledge to play a part in the education and build the capacity of their fellow San. (See also San Youth Groups and the Regional Oral Testimony Collection Project to find out more about how San Youth are working with their own communities).

WIMSA has made links with secondary schools that have relatively large numbers of San students and makes motivational visits, so that students can meet San role models and go on to achieve their Grade 12. Good working relationships have also been created with tertiary institutions.

San students who have been successful in accessing higher education or further training, receive personal mentoring and support from WIMSA. Study support is also provided in order to meet individual and group needs, with an added emphasis on spoken and written English.

The San Student Support programme is always in need of assistance in order to help students to meet the basic expenses e.g. registration fees, college expenses (books, stationary etc.), accommodation and clothing / personal / travel allowances during semester breaks. If you are interested in making a contribution to our Student Support Programme – click here!

Language Development

There are many San language groups in southern Africa; for example in Namibia alone, K hwe, !Ju'|hoan, ! K ung, Naro, Hai||om and ! Xõó are spoken. However, most San cannot understand other San languages and few – particularly those living in rural areas – can speak or understand English, the principle language of South Africa , Botswana and Namibia .

Click here to view a map of the San languages spoken in Southern Africa.

In Namibia it is estimated that at least 60% of San are non-literate. Hardly any schools in the wider southern African region are able, or encouraged to, teach San languages. WIMSA's Regional Education Programme therefore, strongly supports the development of San languages and curriculum/literacy materials across the region.

Due to the work of WIMSA and its partners, the Namibian Government recently introduced Ju'|hoan as a language of instruction for Grades 1-3. The ‘Penduka' (2001) and ‘Penduka II' (2004) conferences held in Windhoek, Namibia provided a forum for San language activists to resolve a number of issues relating to language standardisation and orthography for these phonetically highly complex languages. Over the years, WIMSA has supported the development of literacy materials written in different San languages and Khwe San language activists in West Caprivi, Namibia are currently working in partnership with the Namibian Government and the University of Cologne, Germany, in order to develop a Khwe Literacy Programme and non-formal teaching materials for Grades 1 to 3, along with a Khwedam dictionary.

Some of the San languages – such as Khwedam and !Kung are spoken beyond national borders - and therefore, close co-operation and the sharing of information and literacy materials between WIMSA and its partners has been essential. In June 2005, in collaboration with the Kuru Family of Organisations ( KFO ), SASEF and the Universities of Botswana and Tromsø, a ‘Regional Mother Tongue Conference' was held in Gabarone, Botswana. The report of the conference, designed to also be used as a ‘good practice manual' was published by WIMSA in early 2006 and incorporates relevant research and findings from previous events organised by WIMSA and SASEF. Click here to visit the Publications page.

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