Not everyone working on the school grounds is an educator. Some are simply there to make the teachers’ work easier; to streamline their work, and
ease the burden of their sometimes-weary souls. 

In short, they are there to keep the school’s system in perfect running condition. These people are known as administrative officers.  

One such individual is Salome Sakawe, an administrative officer at the Nzinze Combined School in Kavango West region.

She is a native of Ruuga village, Kavango West, where she was born and bred. This is where she completed her primary and secondary education.

“I attended Ruuga Combined School from Grade 1 to 10. For Grade 11 to 12, I attended
Kandjimi Murangi Secondary School.  

In her words, Sakawe is fully-qualified to handle her role with grace and finesse, having attained qualifications in that field. 

“I went to Zimbabwe College, where I did a course in secretarial administration. I also went further to complete another course in office administration at the Rundu Vocational Training Centre (RVTC),” she said. 

“I am a fully-qualified administrative officer, with skills and qualifications to back that up. My responsibilities include
taking minutes of meetings, attending to visitors, duplicating learning material and related matters, in addition to other duties as may be required by the school during special events,” Sakawe added.

Work Experience

It is worth noting that this was not her first job.  “I worked as a relief secretary at a different school a few years back, and that is how I gained experience,” she said. 

Suffice to say that Sakawe ditched working with machines to deal with people – which is something that speaks to her humanity.  

Sakawe told New Era that she once worked as a computer ICT instructor, and also did her job attachment, during her studies, in the same field.

Prior to all this, Sakawe fancied herself as an entrepreneur, while knocking on doors to her supposed calling. 

Why Public Service

Unlike many folks who feature on these pages and who walk around talking about how they got into the civil because of wanting to serve the nation and the people, when queried on why she opted to go into the civil service, Sakawe did not mince her words, going straight for the kill, with brutal honesty. 

“My biggest dream was to work in government, because I am inspired by government people, seeing them driving big cars,
having beautiful houses. Also,
them having medical aid, they are being treated special, like queens and kings for the betterment of their health.  In short, I saw so
many benefits in government, and that is why I was inspired to work in the public service”, she
added.

Challenges and rewards

No career comes without its fair share of challenges, and ‘babysitting’ educators is not any different. What Sakawe finds most challenging about her job is the daily workload, more so, when it’s all over the place. 

“I find it most challenging when work is piled up on my table. I will even get confused about where to start and end. Eventually, I end up making a few mistakes. But nevertheless, it is not that big a challenge,” she said.  

Notwithstanding the above, she finds every working experience akin to a walk in the park, thanks to her studies and internships. 

“I find everything at work satisfactory,” she noted.

Among some of her achievements is, seemingly, the sense of importance she gets from attending workshops, having seminars, and attending meetings with seniors. 

“Not only that, but always meeting important people whom I never dreamed of meeting, and being granted the opportunity to express myself in their presence,” Sakawe said, adding that she
intends staying in the civil service for while. 

She maintained that she cannot quantify the number of years she intends to remain on the state’s payroll, but for now, she is comfortable “to serve in the public service a bit longer”.

Sakawe strongly disagrees with the widely-held perception that people working in public service are lazy and largely ineffective, but urged the state to work on its knowledge management system to capacitate its workforce.

Queried on whether or not she is planning on spreading her
wings or dipping into other fields Sakawe said: “Since this has been
my career for a while, I do not envisage it changing soon. But I will have to continue learning, and grow into a position of more responsibilities in order to boost my contribution to the country.”