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‘Truant teachers should also face the music’
2015-04-10Staff Report 2 KEETMANSHOOP - Teachers who do not report for duty should face the same music as parents who do not send their children to school, as they both deny Namibian children an education. These are the sentiments of some parents regarding a statement made by the Minister of Education, Arts and Culture Katrina Hanse-Himarwa at her farewell party last month that parents who fail to send their children to school may end up in jail. The parents welcomed Hanse-Himarwa’s good intentions but pointed out the same should then be done to teachers when parents make good efforts to send their children and teachers fail to do their duty of teaching, which results in bad results. Ngeno Nakamaela, a concerned parent, told New Era that teachers should also be prosecuted for failing their duties should learners seat in classrooms without the teachers who are supposed to teach them. He said it was a common practice for some teachers at schools in Namibia to miss classes regularly without any reason and are not punished accordingly for their wrong-doings and thus teachers should also be sent to jail for not teaching learners. “If we send our children then they should be taught or the teachers should also be sent to jail for not teaching them,” he said. In a telephonic interview, the //Kharas regional director of education Awebahe //Hoeseb was in agreement with the minister and parents saying both the teachers and the parents have the responsibility to make sure Namibian children are educated. //Hoeseb said he concurred with the minister in her quest to educate the entire Namibian nation and thus measures should be put in place to make sure her vision is realized, adding that it should be a constitutional obligation to make sure all children are at school. “I concur with the minister, any parent who refuses education to a child should be brought to book,” he said. He also emphasised the same should apply to teachers who fail to deliver to the best of their ability, adding that regulations are already there and a teacher that fails to teach could be charged accordingly. Besides, he also added, a teacher’s individual performance will also affect the immediate head of department, principal, inspector and it goes to up until the director, so it should be everyone’s responsibility to make sure they are performing. 2015-04-10Staff Report 2
