Since GCE emerged from the primordial soup to hand out high school scholarships to the brighter and brightest, our funding formula has been pretty straightforward: school, hostel, and grade 12 exit exam fees. Over our first five years, those costs have averaged about $230 per student for both years of their senior secondary schooling, though averages from individual years have differed based on the exchange rate. (1 USD was 6.9 NAD when we first started, 11.5 last year, and is about 16 this year; our expenses have dropped even though our obligations have grown.)
Two years ago, the Namibian Government instituted free universal primary education, and this year they have extended their support to secondary schooling as well. That means students are no longer required to pay school or testing fees, which for us means an existential crisis of sorts. Whereas before we could say we paid for school and hostel fees and everyone just understood, now we have to go through the pains of explaining the ancillary costs associated with education and how those burdens are just as heavy for our scholars' families. Basically, our support has shifted from the previous funding formula to a new one that covers hostel, uniform, and transport costs.
We are not exactly sure how this will affect our costs but we do expect them to go up a bit. School fees were generally between N$400 and N$500 a year, and testing fees were expected to be about N$700 this year, so between N$1500 and N$1700 per student, plus hostel fees. As far as uniform and transport costs, we just don't know yet but are anticipating uniforms to cost between N$550 and N$1200 each year (depending if their school requires a blazer or not) while transport will be contingent upon how far they are from their respective schools and how many round trip journeys we choose to approve. Round trip taxi fare ranges from N$40 to N$90 and there are three semesters to account for as well as students traveling back and forth on weekends to help out with the realities of sustenance farming. Let's just say three trips a semester and call it a board meeting that you were invited to, shall we?
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Decoder ring: N$ indicates Namibian dollars (NAD). The Namibian dollar is pegged to the South African rand (ZAR).
Two years ago, the Namibian Government instituted free universal primary education, and this year they have extended their support to secondary schooling as well. That means students are no longer required to pay school or testing fees, which for us means an existential crisis of sorts. Whereas before we could say we paid for school and hostel fees and everyone just understood, now we have to go through the pains of explaining the ancillary costs associated with education and how those burdens are just as heavy for our scholars' families. Basically, our support has shifted from the previous funding formula to a new one that covers hostel, uniform, and transport costs.
We are not exactly sure how this will affect our costs but we do expect them to go up a bit. School fees were generally between N$400 and N$500 a year, and testing fees were expected to be about N$700 this year, so between N$1500 and N$1700 per student, plus hostel fees. As far as uniform and transport costs, we just don't know yet but are anticipating uniforms to cost between N$550 and N$1200 each year (depending if their school requires a blazer or not) while transport will be contingent upon how far they are from their respective schools and how many round trip journeys we choose to approve. Round trip taxi fare ranges from N$40 to N$90 and there are three semesters to account for as well as students traveling back and forth on weekends to help out with the realities of sustenance farming. Let's just say three trips a semester and call it a board meeting that you were invited to, shall we?
_____________________
Decoder ring: N$ indicates Namibian dollars (NAD). The Namibian dollar is pegged to the South African rand (ZAR).