Access and Equality to Quality Education among the Marginalized Communities: A Case of the San and Ovahimba Communities in Namibia

Abstract

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012, developed a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 4^th goal of the SDGs provides a benchmark for ensuring accessible, inclusive, and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all (Sachs, 2012). Although several milestones have been conducted in developing policies and curriculum reforms and increasing accessible, inclusive, and equitable quality basic education for all, marginalized communities remain at the fringe of education.  In Namibia, the Sector Policy on Inclusive Education was enacted in 2013 to attain accessible, equitable, and quality education through efficiency, democracy, and advocacy for lifelong learning (Ministry of Education, Sector Policy on Inclusive Education, 2013).  Notably, the National Policy Options for Educationally Marginalized Children, finalized in 2000, marks a vital landscape to improve access and equality in education for marginalized communities. However, marginalized populations, particularly the San and Ovahimba communities, continue to benefit less from educational opportunities.  Even if San and Ovahimba children enrol in schools (Basic and Secondary education), they experience hardships such as cost barriers, social discrimination, and lack of academic support, resulting in a high dropout rate (Hays et al., 2008).  This paper examines accessibility and equality to quality education among Namibia's San and Ovahimba marginalized communities in the context of Namibian Sector Policy on Inclusive Education of 2013. A qualitative Case study design was used as a method of inquiry and a total of ten participants from each group (San and Ovahimba) were purposively selected. Data was collected by means of a semi-structured interview guide. The study results show that access barriers to quality education among the San and Ovahimba groups in Namibia is categorized into four main categories. Namely: Socio-economic, cultural, political and geographical /physical barriers.