Unemployed teachers hand over petition
Unemployed teaching graduates have submitted a list of demands to the prime minister, including that unqualified teachers be fired to create jobs for them.
NAMPA
WINDHOEK
A group of unemployed graduate teachers on Thursday handed over a petition to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) in which they demand that interviews for teaching posts be abolished, among other issues.
The group under the United Unemployed Educators Movement (UUEM) and backed by the Teachers Union of Namibia (TUN), stressed that in most cases over 400 applicants are invited to interviews for a single teaching post.
The petition demands that all frozen teaching posts be unfrozen and that junior primary teaching posts currently occupied by unqualified teachers be given to the unemployed qualified teachers instead.
“The issue of Insert Service Teachers is disturbing because contracts from 2015 ended in January but they are still in the system despite the fact that most of them are far behind with their academic progress,” they alleged.
UUEM also called for the appointment of grade 12 certificate holders and those from other fields of studies who take up vacancies for the secondary phase on a temporary basis to be abolished.
Such posts must be given to qualified teachers regardless of the phase they specialized in because they are trained as teachers and are well equipped with knowledge of implementing evaluation and assessment. Contacted for comment, TUN secretary general, Mahongora Kavihuha said: “If we move to the agreed norm these teachers will be absorbed in Namibian schools. Moreover, government has the sole responsibility to ensure that any graduate is employed through their own initiatives and through private investors to ensure that there are jobs.”
The minister of education, arts and culture, Anna Nghipondoka, said in September last year that the government would not bend the law to make it possible to recruit unemployed graduate teachers and that all teaching positions would be filled through established procedures and the recruitment policy framework.
Nghipondoka made the remark in the National Assembly when she clarified steps the government had taken to address the plight of unemployed graduate teachers.
The public relations officer in the OPM, Saima Shaanika, confirmed to Nampa that the office had received the petition, saying that Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila would study it before responding.
The movement gave the prime minister until 29 January to respond to their demands.
WINDHOEK
A group of unemployed graduate teachers on Thursday handed over a petition to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) in which they demand that interviews for teaching posts be abolished, among other issues.
The group under the United Unemployed Educators Movement (UUEM) and backed by the Teachers Union of Namibia (TUN), stressed that in most cases over 400 applicants are invited to interviews for a single teaching post.
The petition demands that all frozen teaching posts be unfrozen and that junior primary teaching posts currently occupied by unqualified teachers be given to the unemployed qualified teachers instead.
“The issue of Insert Service Teachers is disturbing because contracts from 2015 ended in January but they are still in the system despite the fact that most of them are far behind with their academic progress,” they alleged.
UUEM also called for the appointment of grade 12 certificate holders and those from other fields of studies who take up vacancies for the secondary phase on a temporary basis to be abolished.
Such posts must be given to qualified teachers regardless of the phase they specialized in because they are trained as teachers and are well equipped with knowledge of implementing evaluation and assessment. Contacted for comment, TUN secretary general, Mahongora Kavihuha said: “If we move to the agreed norm these teachers will be absorbed in Namibian schools. Moreover, government has the sole responsibility to ensure that any graduate is employed through their own initiatives and through private investors to ensure that there are jobs.”
The minister of education, arts and culture, Anna Nghipondoka, said in September last year that the government would not bend the law to make it possible to recruit unemployed graduate teachers and that all teaching positions would be filled through established procedures and the recruitment policy framework.
Nghipondoka made the remark in the National Assembly when she clarified steps the government had taken to address the plight of unemployed graduate teachers.
The public relations officer in the OPM, Saima Shaanika, confirmed to Nampa that the office had received the petition, saying that Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila would study it before responding.
The movement gave the prime minister until 29 January to respond to their demands.
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