Julia Kamarenga
Omaheke education director Pecka Semba has urged educators in the region to direct all efforts towards ensuring good teaching and learning practices. Semba made the statement while officiating at a regional cluster meeting with principals, heads of departments, life skill teachers and chairpersons of school boards at Gobabis this week.
The purpose of the meeting was to build and strengthen the capacity of the participants and their respective schools and hostels in the domain of effective service delivery and the full implementation of ministerial policies and guidelines. The meeting also sought to provide the participants with an opportunity to further develop and strengthen monitoring and evaluation in all aspects of education.
“It is disturbing when we encounter quite big challenges that have absolutely nothing to do with our core business, and they are for that matter pushed conveniently to the front of our priorities,” Semba said.
Semba appealed to principals, heads of departments and phase heads to constantly monitor, guide and evaluate the work of the teachers to remedy poor outputs timeously and in the best interest of learners.
The director went on to call on all teachers to put in maximum efforts and respond in the best possible way to the national call of imparting quality knowledge to the learners, display the necessary patience and bring back the necessary nobility into the teaching profession despite the scourge of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have a mammoth task on our shoulders of not only ensuring that our learners receive the best possible education services, but we are equally duty bound to ensure that we retain our learners in the education system,” he said.
“Despite the heavy toll that the pandemic has taken on our teaching-learning situation, the best response is to impart our knowledge and skills for a better tomorrow. We cannot compromise on this principle.
“To this effect, our ministry developed a well-crafted document called ‘Resilience Plan for Formal Education’ to be a road map of our approach in these trying times.”