KEETMANSHOOP – The Director of Education in the //Karas Region, /Awebahe //Hoeseb, has called on government to re-implement the merit system towards retaining skilled teachers at rural schools.
//Hoeseb said this in light of good and outstanding teachers being promoted to inspectors, leaving schools to drop in excellence as they become robbed of much needed skills.
“There is indeed a need to retain skills and good teachers at schools. It is however not always that the teachers who are promoted were good teachers but in most instances it is that they were the driving force behind the school’s success. But it is unfair to want to keep such teachers in the school if they deserve a better salary and it is their right to apply for higher positions. What we can do is to bring back the merit system and then teachers can stay at rural schools whilst earning the same salary they would have earned in a higher position. There is need for our government to reward teachers whilst they are still teaching and especially the ones that are doing an exceptional job,” he suggested, adding that there is need for government to make teachers feel valued.
//Hoeseb cautioned schools which still request parents, care-givers and guardians of primary school children to buy stationery, textbooks and cleaning materials or to contribute towards the remuneration of teachers appointed by the school boards. “This is a crime, it is unconstitutional. Primary education has been proclaimed free,” he said.
He called on principals to ensure that school boards do not recommend staff members for employment, promotion or transfer at schools and hostels on the basis of regionalism, tribalism, ethnicity, racism, favouritism and nepotism.
//Hoeseb also proposed that off-site workshops be substituted with on-site in-service training and that indiscipline by teachers no longer be tolerated.
“Principals must be the first on the school premises and the last to leave. I see teachers do not get sick over school holidays but they get sick during school trimesters,” he said, adding that discipline must start with teaching staff.
He also recommended the implementation of afternoon and extra classes over weekends and cautioned teachers that the third trimester is exclusively dedicated for thorough revision and that the syllabi be fully covered by them.
“You have to ensure that maximum teaching and learning take place at all times at your schools and that learners do their homework and study in the afternoons and evenings under teacher supervision,” he said.
By Jemima Beukes