Oshikunde Secondary to become biggest school in Ohangwena
Construction of the second phase of Oshikunde Secondary School is ahead of schedule and will be signed of to the Ministry of Education in October this year. The full project, which includes accommodation and sports facilities, will be completed by February next year.
Once finished, Oshikunde Secondary will be the biggest high school in the region.
The Oshikunde Secondary School project in the Ohangwena Region is progressing well with construction well ahead of schedule in its second stage amid mounting political and public pressure for the construction of classrooms to accommodate more pupils.
The Economist learnt this week that the N$115 million project started in July 2012 and the first phase was given off on time. The Nexus Group site agent, Andre Roodman, said the final phase of the Oshikunde Secondary School project is anticipated to be finished by the end of February 2015.
“Nexus is two months ahead of schedule and plans to hand over the second phase in October 2014, four months before the finishing date” said Roodman.
The construction at Oshikunde consists of proper planning, surveying and building of new platforms and excavations. The project also includes the construction of 38 buildings consisting of two and three bedroom houses, two bedroom flats, computer and catering classrooms, a science lab, two matrons houses with sick-bays, 10 hostel blocks, a library, classrooms, a 400 square metre kitchen, a 600 square metre hall as well as international standard soccer, netball and volleyball fields. Roodman highlighted that every building will have solar power units with hot and cold water showers. A water purifying system will be connected to the borehole to make sure that the water is treated and 100% healthy for human consumption. However, with construction of this magnitude, Roodman cited some challenges that have hampered progression of the project. “On a project of this magnitude you always encounter some difficulties. A winning solution is always a combination of team work, proper advance planning, skilled workmanship and an excellent professional designer team. Because of the size of Nexus Building, we can not afford to have a weak link in projects of this magnitude,”stressed Roodman. He stated that other factors like bad weather, water supply and carting of huge quantities of building material to the site on time where some of the challenges the project had to endure but they managed to get well ahead of their schedule despite those problems. The first two phases of the project created jobs for the local residents with them constituting 75% of the sub-contractors and the other 25% of the workforce being sourced from outside the region to perform specialised jobs.
