Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA)

Across Southern Africa, the San are the most marginalized ethnic group. Educational achievement among them is very low, with less than 1% obtaining a school-leaving certificate. Despite various efforts to improve participation in the formal education system over the past 20 years, San students continue to drop out at very high rates. There is an urgent need to address the education and training needs of the existing population of youth and adults that have very low levels of schooling, in addition to improving educational access for children currently of school-going age. Effective approaches will be community-based, and will build upon local knowledge, culture, language, and livelihood opportunities. They must also allow for San communities to remain flexible in a rapidly changing world.

 

To address these issues, the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA), the University of Namibia, OSISA and UNESCO will convene a sub-regional conference from 19-21 June in Namibia on the theme of Indigenous Education in a Changing World 2012.

 

Held in consultation with the Ministry of Education, the conference will determine what efforts have been made to improve formal education for San communities and also identify alternative learning options that could help San communities meet their educational aspirations. The conference will focus on San in Namibia, Botswana and Angola but will invite other countries in the sub-region to share their experiences.

 

The San are Southern Africa’s indigenous people, living today in Botswana, Namibia, Angola, and South Africa, with small numbers in Zimbabwe and Zambia. Former hunter-gatherers, today they are currently living in conditions of extreme marginalization and poverty, and are struggling to adapt to a fast-changing world. In all of the areas in which they live, San communities experience problems with formal education, leading to low levels of success and very high dropout rates. 

 

For example, in Namibia, the San number approximately 38,000 – making up around 2 percent of the population – and live in 7 of Namibia’s 13 political regions: Caprivi, Kavango, Kunene, Ohangwena, Omaheke, Oshikoto and Otjozondjupa. The San live primarily in remote areas and as farm-workers, and lack strong political representation. Most San do not have sufficient access to the basic services provided by the government, including health facilities and schools. The poverty level among the San is 59.7 percent and the incidence of severe poverty is 39 percent – more than double the national average (GRN 2008:13).

 

The San have the lowest educational attainment of any other ethnic group in Namibia. According to the most recent available statistics, the enrollment rate for San is 67 percent in Grades 1-3, 22 percent in Grades 4-7, 6 percent in Grades 8-9 and less than 1 percent at the end of secondary school. (EMIS 2009:40). This extremely high drop-out rate is far above national average, and is especially high among female San learners.

 

The high drop-out rate is linked to a variety of factors, including issues connected to language, poverty, remoteness, stigma, and other social and cultural factors. Several concerted efforts by the government and support organizations have tried to increase numbers of San children in formal education. These have had limited success, however, and the vast majority of San youth and adults have very low levels of education. Employment opportunities are also limited, and the majority of San have little, inconsistent, or no cash income. Many families are dependent on erratic state-run food-aid programmes. 

 

The overarching goal of the conference is to facilitate the creation of an environment in which San and other marginalized communities can access education that is relevant to their cultural, social and economic aspirations.

 

In order to do this, the conference will work with a common understanding of education having the primary purpose of meeting basic learning needs. The conference will address the issue of what these learning needs are for San communities, and how they can best be met.

 

By bringing together stakeholders from Namibia, Botswana and Angola as well as from other neighboring countries, the conference will allow people to share experiences and to develop a workable plan of action for the way forward. Building upon lessons learned from previous conferences and from existing projects in the sub-region, this conference has the following objectives: