Stefanus Nambara
NKURENKURU – Teachers in Kavango West who excelled in their work and produced a higher pass rate in the 2019 National Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSC) exams were rewarded at an annual award ceremony held last week on Friday.
Twenty-one teachers from six schools that offered the NSSC examinations in the region last year had their results-oriented spirits boosted as they were presented with certificates, medals and trophies for their outstanding performances.
Receiving the awards, the teachers were excited saying this will encourage them even more to do better in every examination.
“I feel great and I feel that I am being honoured for the hard work that I have been putting in,” said Morgan Sinalumbu, a teacher from Leevi Hakusembe Secondary School who walked away as the best teacher in the entrepreneurship ordinary level examination.
Sharing the same feelings was Edwin Kandumbu from Bunya Combined School who was second best teacher in the Rukwangali first language higher level examination.
Dedication, hard work, result oriented and sticking to basic competencies as outlined in the syllabuses were an order of the day for the teachers.
Top performing schools were also awarded. Bunya Combined School that was in the top 10 best performing public schools in the NSSC higher level examinations countrywide was awarded as the best performing.
ELCIN Nkurenkuru High School was awarded the best performing school in the ordinary level examinations and as the overall best performing school in both ordinary and higher levels examinations.
The awards are organised by the region’s directorate of education, arts, and culture to recognise excellence in education in the region.
The regional governor, in a speech read on her behalf by the regional chairperson, Joseph Sikongo who is also the Tondoro constituency councillor said awarding top performers encourages others who did not do well in the past academic year to excel.
She said that achieving success in education does not, neither will it happen by chance but it is planned for and is intentional.
She reminded teachers that their role is not only confined to classroom environment but extends beyond that, therefore should desist from inappropriate acts such as indulging in alcohol abuse and having teacher-learner relationships, and rather be role models and bring positive influence in learners’ personal lives too.
“There are some learners in your classrooms who need more than teachers; they need fathers, mothers – they need a hand that will help, they need someone to instill hope in them,” she implored teachers.
She believes education can help pull the region out of poverty.