Education-Swakopmund Constituency Council willing to get involved in education development and progress

The Swakopmund Constituency Councillor Mr Juuso Kambueshe and the Constituency Development Committee had a meeting with school principals, head of departments and school board members of all schools in Swakopmund this week.

The purpose of the meeting was for Kambueshe to understand the challenges experienced in schools and see how to support the schools. “I am here with my Constituency Development Committee (CDC) members and I am confident that they too would like to be participants in this drive. Please understand this engagement to be a stepping stone towards mutual co-operation for the drive of striving towards education excellence” Kambueshe assured the educators. During this consultative meeting, the educators were asked to mention problems they are having at their respective schools and the Inspector of Education in Erongo Mr Olivier mentioned the following challenges phased in all eleven schools of Swakopmund: Inadequate place in schools, late coming of learners to school, learners do not do their homework, teenage pregnancy which is alarming and which has become concerning, Learners are disrespectful, learners are not committed to their work just as teachers are not committed, absenteeism was also one of the points Olivier mentioned, lack of parental involvement and a shortage of staff.
Kambueshe said his team will be visiting all schools in Swakopmund to see for himself which challenges the schools really face and which challenges need to be addressed first and need urgent attention before moving onto the other challenges. Another challenge which principals are having and want the constituency council to help them out with is the issue of drugs on school premises and the educators asked the CDC members to look into ways of assisting schools in eradicating the problem. Speaking on the issue of poor performance of learners in school the educators also said there are many hindering factors towards learner’s performance, for example their place of residents, if learners have a proper home where they can go to then they will be happy in school too. They also believe that the lack of places in schools is caused by migrants who come to the coast because of work, especially in the mining sector and the educators asked the constituency council what the mining sector is doing to ease the situation of lack of schools and what their contribution is.
While addressing the senior educators, Kambueshe said he was not able to answer questions asked during the consultation meeting or fix the problems instantly because his team, and him, will be doing individual visits to schools and a research based feedback will be given to the educators as soon as possible.
According to Kambueshe the idea of stakeholders working together with the education sector was brought forward by the Minister of education Mrs. Katrina Hanse Himarwa’s during her familiarization visit to Erongo last year (2016) who left the stakeholders with assignments that need implementation. The main purpose of Himarwa’s visit was to cement a relationship with education stakeholders. (SWK CC & CDC are Stakeholders of education). “Minister Himarwa reassured us that she seeks solid co-operation and involvement of regional leadership. She reminded us not to neglect arts and culture in our community, she also explained the need for extending pass marks of grade 10 learners to 27 points. Himarwa requested stakeholder’s preparation and urged all stakeholders to be involved in education development and progress” adds Kambueshe.