Graduate teacher fails to land job after 400 interviews

Chairperson of a group calling itself 'Oshana Unemployed Qualified Teachers', Mariana Kambonde, this week said despite attending more than 400 interviews, she has not been able to secure a job.Kambonde was among over 100 unemployed qualified teachers who held a demonstration at the Oshana regional library on Tuesday this week.“We are tired," Kambonde said. "I personally have attended more than 400 interviews without success.”A petition handed over during the demonstration accused the education ministry of failing to implement measures to address the crisis of unemployed teachers.According to the petition, over 8 200 teachers who have graduated between 2017 and 2023 remain unemployed, with an estimated 3 000 more expected to join the pool by the end of this year. “We believe that the ministry has failed the country by not employing qualified teachers,” the petition read.Mass recruitment strategyThe protesting teachers are calling for the abolition of interviews in the hiring process, arguing that the current system acts as a barrier to employment.They also demand the implementation of a mass recruitment strategy, primarily to address overcrowded classrooms in urban areas.A proposal was made to introduce team teaching in junior primary grades, with one teacher focused on core subjects and another on mother tongue instruction. Further demands include the creation of a national database of all unemployed qualified teachers to support fair and efficient placements across regions.Oshana's chief regional officer Teopolina Hamutumua, who received the petition, assured the group that their concerns would be escalated to the relevant national authorities.“It will form part of the ongoing dialogue as we seek balanced solutions between quality education and available resources,” Hamutumua said.Complex issue Education ministry executive director Erastus Haitengela this week reiterated that teacher unemployment remains a complex and systemic issue.Haitengela said while the number of graduates continues to rise, the public education system cannot absorb them all, particularly in oversaturated fields, such as lower primary education.“There’s an imbalance between teacher supply and the actual demand in the system,” Haitengela explained.He added that institutions have been urged to reduce intakes in saturated areas and that the Namibia Student Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) has been asked to redirect funding toward priority fields.While some urban schools suffer from overcrowding, many rural schools remain underutilised due to rural-urban migration and perceptions about the quality of rural education.‘Decongestion’ plan To tackle this imbalance, the ministry plans to repurpose underused rural schools as community learning centres or expand them with hostels to attract more learners. Haitengela also highlighted the ministry’s ongoing post-provisioning audit and the development of a three-year decongestion strategy to address overcrowding in classrooms.Short-term measures, such as the platoon system, are being applied where necessary, especially in junior primary grades, though they are not a preferred long-term solution.Despite the ministry’s efforts, the protesting teachers say action has been too slow and too limited to meet the scale of the crisis.Until concrete changes are made, they warn that demonstrations will continue.

Graduate teacher fails to land job after 400 interviews

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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Graduate teacher fails to land job after 400 interviews

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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