ONGWEDIVA – The education director in Oshana region, Hileni Amukana, has encouraged stakeholders in education to be actively involved in their children’s schoolwork in order to keep improving results in the region.
Amukana stressed that education is a collective effort and stakeholders must work together to make a difference.
She was speaking at the Oshana annual education stakeholders’ conference at Ongwediva on Friday.
The meeting sought to analyse the 2021 national results and map the way forward in order to improve results in the region.
During the academic year in question, the region qualified 863 learners of their total enrollment of 4 083 to Advanced Subsidiary (AS) level.
Amukana said the region does not want to see any learner being left behind or repeating a grade.
“We do not want any child to be left behind, we don’t want children to be repeating. We want that when children are in school, let them be taught and let them be taught well,” she said.
She also told the learners who were in attendance to bring their part to improve their results.
She encouraged parents to support the learners to learn and not wait until the results are out before they start pointing fingers.
Amukana praised the police for going after learners who are abusing alcohol and drugs and those who spend time at shebeens and roaming streets.
“There is no child who abuse drugs or abuses alcohol and does well in school; there is no child who spends time at the shebeen, who spend time roaming around the streets who will do well in school,” Amukana said.
Also speaking at the event, the governor of Oshana region Elia Irimari said the conference is an opportunity to engage and redirect concerted efforts in order to deliver on the government promise of quality education for all Namibian children.
The governor said the participation of all stakeholders in education will improve the socio economic standing of the region and country at large.
“We need education to reduce inequalities, break and reverse the cycles of intergenerational poverty amongst our people,” the governor stressed.
To improve results in the region, the region has committed itself to intensify school visits, induct new teachers and train teachers on syllabi interpretation.
The region has also further committed itself to provide schools with resources timeously, train principals and heads of department in monitoring and leadership and also train junior primary teachers in jolly phonics.
* Nuusita Ashipala is an Information Officer at the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology in Oshana.