KEETMANSHOOP-In efforts to discuss matters relating to education and the effective delivery of service in the //Kharas region, Education, Innovation, Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture minister, Sanet Steenkamp addressed school principals, heads of departments and members of management from the Directorate yesterday in the town.
From the onset she made it clear that her Ministry will not tolerate teachers who deliberately, through being indecisive, derail the provision of quality education and high-performance results in the region. I am for now kindly requesting those guilty of such practices to cease it, but next time I will ensure through the regional director that you are removed,” she sternly warned.
The veteran educator, when responding to concerns raised during the meeting reminded all present that education can at times be a complexity, but that through taking hands, execute remedial interventions and seriously addressing challenges experienced it can be changed.
“I am worried by your statistics presented that out of 2 800 grade one learners enrolled only 1086 pushed through to grade 11 level’’ she said. Steenkamp then raised the concern of, despite having qualified and experienced teachers being supported and guided through capacity building interventions the methods applied in teaching does not yield the desired outcome.
“More than ever, we should now interrogate what went wrong and by this I am not only referring to teachers and learners, but more importantly parents should come on board so that this should be a collective effort in exchanging expectations as part of addressing these challenges and share recommendations,’’ she emphasized.
Referring to a concern that private schools being isolated and excluded from public educational activities she strongly denounced the notion. ‘’These two institutions are both under the legal framework of the Basic Education Act and should not be in competition, except that parents of private school learners can afford the prescribed higher tuition fees’’, she explained. She further urged educators at private schools to come together with those of public schools to share ideas, join management meetings and work together in improving education standards in the region.
Another burning challenge raised was the absence of resource and special learning facilities in the region, to which she advised the regional education management to make provision to request for additional funding from government, solicit funding from private entities and rather construct such classrooms in phases instead of doing it once-off.
In terms of the delay in filling vacancies Steenkamp urged managers to follow due processes when advertising positions and complete the recruitment process within a 12-months period to avoid requests being send back for re-advertisement.
“The direct consequence in such instances is that there might not be budgetary provision for such vacancies during the next financial year,’’ the politician warned.
When probed as to why teachers acting in head of department posts cannot be promoted accordingly, she explained that government cannot relax the laid down qualifying requirements like six years teaching experience on a permanent base or tertiary studies in specific subjects required for, hence those affected should first complied as such.
Statistics provided by //Kharas regional education director, Nicolaas Eiman indicated that 27 544 learners were enrolled for the 2026 academic year, whilst there are 1036 teachers employed thus far. It continued that there are 48 private and 16 private schools in the region with 38 public-and-private hostels accommodating learners accordingly.
[email protected]
