Leonard Kanime
For some time now, the media has been reporting on table and chair shortages in public schools and hospitals, even though the solution is clearly within reach. Namibia has several vocational training centres that produce a large number of technical graduates in various trades each year. So, there is a solution to the table and chairs that lack in public schools and hospitals.
Many artisans from vocational training centres and the Namibia Institute of Mining and Technology are well-equipped to produce and manufacture industrial-class tools. VET institutions provide the skills and trainees required to manufacture and create the best products possible. With the country’s high unemployment rate, trainees should be conscripted to repair all chairs, tables, and beds in various public schools and hospitals, as we have seen in the media how in some schools, learners/pupils
are accommodated and taught while sitting on the floors, and patients lie on unclad floors in public hospitals.Rather than awarding tenders worth millions for a two-day job, the trainees should be assigned the opportunity to renovate dilapidated government and public sector buildings. As many trainees
struggle to find attachments or internships, apprentices should make, fix, and repair chairs and tables while interning at various vocational training centres. All that is required is an agreement between the relevant ministries, vocational centres, schools, and hospitals.
This keeps youth busy, and even if not all, at least half of the unemployed will be productive rather than being idle, indulging in alcohol and drugs or criminal activities. In some countries, offenders with skills or who have received technical expertise in rehabilitation centres are tasked with renovating public infrastructure, repairing, and manufacturing the necessary tools for government institutions. Many prisoners in Namibia’s various correctional facilities have attained and learned skills in various trades such as welding, boiler making, cabin building, and furniture making, and they may be able to provide needed services to alleviate the shortage of furniture in public institutions. When possible, the money that was supposed to be paid out for tenders should be used to buy food for prisoners rather than feeding
them with taxpayers’ money. If prisoners are allowed to produce goods for schools and hospitals, Namibia will no longer have to lament a lack of equipment in government institutions or import tools from other countries that can be manufactured locally. Everything does not have to be procured through exorbitant tenders.
*Leonard Kanime is a social commentator.