Josephina Mwashindange
OMUTHIYA – The Namibia National Teachers Union brought together graduate teachers in the Oshikoto region with institutions they will get to encounter once they secure a job.
The aim was to share information about education and the career they chose.
The union organised a one-day meeting at Elcin church in Omuthiya and was attended by the aspirant teachers from most parts of the region.
“We felt it necessary to invite these beginner teachers who recently finished their tertiary education and did not secure any job to date. The aim is mainly to prepare them for the industry with knowledgeable information that might help them in decision making,” said Hosian Hitanwa, chairperson of Nantu in the Oshikoto region.
Nantu invited the Oshikoto directorate of education (human resources), Social Security Commission, Government Institution Pension Fund (GIPF), Namibia Revenue Agency (NAMRA) and Metropolitan financial services company.
According to Hitanwa, Nantu has a major responsibility of creating awareness for its teachers and seeing how they can assist them.
He added they have a database of 240 registered graduate teachers who are unemployed.
Hitanwa believed that keeping a record of such information would help the government in better planning in future.
“We have noticed the challenge of teachers being called for interviews, where only one candidate is needed; this needs to be addressed to give equal and fair chances to all,” said Hitanwa.
However, the participants have raised concerns and advised teachers who are already employed and in most cases just want to transfer from one school to another, to not go for interviews but rather pave way for the new teachers, as they believe that this takes up space for the unemployed graduate teachers.
Meanwhile, Halolye Amulungu, a junior primary diploma holder from the International University of Management (IUM), said she completed her education in 2020 and is still job-hunting, despite being called for a few interviews.
Echoing the same sentiment is Lucresia Shuudeni, a degree holder from IOL, who said they have learnt a lot from the presentations – and Nantu gave them a sense of belonging – even though they do not have jobs yet.
However, these graduates have appealed to the government to revise their recruitment process, especially when calling people for interviews when they only need one candidate.
“It is very hard to get a job nowadays because you need to make copies, get them certified and then travel long distances for an interview. Can people please not return our copies for further use, because it is very costly. Imagine travelling from Oshakati to Karasburg just for an interview,” said Shuudeni.