Teachers from the Khomas region will gather at the Namibia Football Association (NFA) Technical Centre in Windhoek on Saturday to engage in various sports activities to raise awareness of the emotional stress educators experience.
The sports activities form part of Teachers’ Wellbeing Week, which commenced in the Khomas region on Monday, and would create a platform for teachers to engage with social workers on critical issues such as mental health and suicide prevention.
Sport and teachers’ wellness coordinator Pule Tjiroze told Nampa in a recent interview that due to the recent loss of experienced teachers due to suicide, they have established a platform using sports as a tool to communicate or seek help.
“In honour of our dear colleagues who are no longer with us, we are reminded of the urgent need to pause, reflect, and take care of ourselves, the caretakers of education,” he said.
Tjiroze also mentioned that before the main event on Saturday, schools have been asked to allocate daily time for counselling starting Monday.
“We are pleased to announce the start of Teacher Wellbeing Week, which began on Monday, 18 August. During this week, each school is respectfully asked to dedicate one day to a 20 or 30-minute group counselling session led by their respective life skills teachers. These sessions focus on essential aspects of mental well-being specific to teachers, a small but meaningful step toward building emotional resilience and peer support in our schools,” Tjiroze stated.
The sport and teachers’ wellness coordinator also added that to promote wellness and camaraderie, the Saturday event will be used as the first Teacher Bragging Rights Day.
“This celebration will take place at both the NFA Technical Centre and St. Barnabas Primary School, serving as a lively lead-up to the main wellness event in September. We encourage all colleagues and schools to take this initiative seriously, not as a duty, but as a chance to prioritise something often overlooked in our jobs: our own well-being,” Tjiroze added. -Nampa