OTJIWARONGO – The Deputy Director of Education in the Otjozondjupa Region, Alberthina Nangolo, says the shortage of teachers in the country has prompted the ministry to look at recruiting teachers from other countries in the SADC region.
The influx of learners to Grade 8 is also being felt acutely in the region. “Because of the challenge we are facing the ministry made it clear, it is in writing, that if there are foreign teachers and the region does not have qualified teachers we can also consider foreign teachers from the SADC countries, that is in black and white from the office of the PS. The general goal is to get everyone well educated. We do not want our children on the streets. You know they are the future of this country they must be educated so that we can realize Vision 2030,” said Nangolo.
Otjiwarongo has three secondary and seven primary schools and in the past secondary schools in the region somehow managed to cope with the annual Grade 8 influx. However, all this has changed now. “Normally grade one is a challenge and we have found space to rent at churches for pre-primary. The free education is another contributing factor. Everyone is coming back to school, especially at primary level and this is putting pressure on the secondary schools, which is good. According to Nangolo the learner population of the region is growing rapidly, due mainly to the fact that many people are flocking into the region in search of jobs in the mines. “The mines employ many people and those people bring up to six children with them,” she said. “We had planned for the number of children that were in grade seven to be accommodated, even if some were to fail, we can no longer accommodate all the learners coming to grade eight,” added the deputy director.
“We have three buildings or blocks and space that we rent from the church, two of those blocks are reserved for classes, the other block will be converted into a small staff room. We are targeting to accommodate five classes and if need be we will erect tents since there is plenty of room in the yard. The lack of space for grade eight learners has been resolved by these five classrooms,” Nangolo said. According to Nangolo there is considerable pressure on schools to recruit teachers. “You have children in front of you without a teacher, will you advertise the post? If advertised today the advert will need to run for four weeks while the children need to be taught today,” said Nangolo. She says the Ministry of Education will also go through old applications in an attempt to find out if teachers who had applied previously have been appointed or not. If they were not appointed, but qualify the teachers will be offered jobs to start as soon as possible.
By John Travolter Matali