Hanse-Himarwa puts foot down

The education ministry will not tolerate negligence, laziness, sluggishness, complacency and immoral behaviour such as theft this year. Education minister Katrina Hanse-Himarwa says the ministry will also not tolerate behaviour such as tardiness, insubordination and non-compliance with established work ethics and corporate values. “It is these petty crimes that are eating away at the government,” she said in her annual staff address, during which the ministry's strategic plan for 2017/18 to 2021/22 was launched. “This is the year of reckoning,” she said, referring to the theme that President Hage Geingob has assigned to 2018. Hanse-Himarwa said the current financial year was definitely not easy for the ministry as its budget had been significantly reduced. According to her painful decisions had to be made such as cutting school grants, hostel catering and school feeding programmes, which caused a public outcry. “However, it needed to be done,” said Hanse-Himarwa. She said in the mid-term budget review the ministry's financial constraints were somewhat eased and some shortfalls could be addressed. However, the fiscus is still under strain and therefore staff must plan activities within the ministry's financial means. Hanse-Himarwa said that quarterly reports received by the ministry cited budget constraints as the reason for underperformance and staff needed to be innovative in coping with smaller budgets. According to her the directive that was recently issued by the prime minister's office to cut costs in the public sector must be implemented. The directive seeks to establish expenditure control systems and gradually reduce personnel expenses, such as subsistence and travel allowances and overtime, over the next three financial years. It further seeks to drastically reduce telephone expenses and transport allowances, and encourages government offices to work together to avoid unnecessary duplication of activities and expenses. According to the education minister, numerous challenges remain. One of these is the retention of staff and that requires human resource planning. Hanse-Himarwa further said with regard to the Grade 10 and 12 exam results that she had requested a special meeting with regional directors, inspectors and principals in an effort to develop regional action plans and address the shortcomings and inefficiency in some regions. She added that the absence of an asset register at the ministry remained a huge challenge and responsible officials must establish one this year. She further expressed concern about poor performance in capital projects, adding that the ministry had limited resources and could not afford to underperform in this aspect. She said the ministry must ensure efficiency to enhance the teaching and learning environment. She said she was also concerned about the Performance Management System (PMS), as the majority of staff members had not signed performance agreements. “I am giving a directive that all staff must give full compliance to the PMS framework.” Because of budget cuts some vacancies have not been filled and the redeployment off staff members should be considered. Mentioning the payroll investigation in which the ministry was defrauded of millions over several years, Hanse-Himarwa said it uncovered damning evidence and criminal cases were opened against the suspects. Investigations were carried out in the Zambezi Region and the Kavango West Region and Kavango East Regions. A total of 18 teachers and two former accountants in the education ministry were arrested for defrauding the ministry of N$10 million. According to Hanse-Himarwa the investigation was expanded to the other regions. She warned staff members to be careful and vigilant and to report suspicious behaviour to contain corruption. Furthermore with regard to the revised curriculum for basic education, she said that the reform of the junior primary phase started in 2015 and for grades 8 and 9 it continued in 2017 and 2018 respectively. The education reform for grade 10 will take place in 2019, for grade 11 in 2020 and for grade 12 in 2020. However Hanse-Himarwa said system inefficiencies would continue to hamper the reform of the education system and needed to be addressed. According to her a customer satisfaction survey showed that service delivery within the ministry is very poor, with a satisfaction rate of 58%. She said the Harambee Prosperity Plan targets a citizen satisfaction rate of 70% by 2020. Hanse-Himarwa said she constantly receives complaints from the public of unprofessionalism and of ministry staff being unresponsive and unfriendly.ELLANIE SMIT

Hanse-Himarwa puts foot down

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Namibian Sun 2025-08-06

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Hanse-Himarwa puts foot down

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Namibian Sun 2025-08-06

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