Windhoek
With the new school term in its second week there are still some 22 vacant teacher posts in the Omaheke Region, the Omaheke Directorate of Education revealed yesterday.
The director of education in the Omaheke Region Pecka Semba disclosed that the directorate is currently in need of four principals, six heads of departments and 12 teachers.
“Mind, this number can even go up, because we will find out later that some of the teachers we recruited have taken up other positions at other schools,” he stressed. Omaheke Region has been one of the bad performing regions for the past three years and in the past the shortage of teachers was blamed for the poor performance. In the 2015 Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) Grade 10 examinations Omaheke dropped two places from ninth position to number 11.
On a positive note, this year in the Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSC) Ordinary Level results for full-time and part-time candidates Omaheke made the most progress – moving up six places from 12th position to sixth place.
However, Semba yesterday said the region was not celebrating. “We are not celebrating the results as there is nothing to celebrate; we have to take the first spot that’s when we can celebrate.”
Last week the Teachers’ Union of Namibia (TUN) attributed the high failure rate among Grade 12 learners to the perennial shortage of teachers at schools.
In the past learners and parents lamented the shortage of teachers in crucial subjects at countless schools across the country.
TUN secretary general Mahongora Kavihuha said the shortage of teachers should be squarely blamed on government for not coming up with a solution to the problem that crops up every year.
Kavihuha advised the education ministry to start recruiting unemployed university graduates across the country in permanent teaching positions.
“For instance, graduates in the financial sectors can be employed in a permanent position as teachers and then he or she can go through teacher training,” he explained.
The education ministry released a vacancy list last year, which indicates that there are 3 126 vacant teaching posts in the country.
In 2013 the ministry announced plans to recruit 156 teachers from neighbouring countries, due to the acute shortage of English, mathematics and science teachers at secondary school level.