Parliament probes tribal favouritism in teacher promotions

Claims of tribal favouritism in the promotion of teachers have come under the spotlight, with a parliamentary committee calling for fairness, diversity and merit in the appointment of teachers to senior positions.

The Teachers Union of Namibia (TUN) raised concerns that “tribal favouritism” in promotions has resulted in unequal representation in senior positions in some regions.

The National Council standing committee on education, science, information and communication technology and youth development has acknowledged the concerns, but cautioned that such claims should be supported by statistics.

Committee chairperson Bethuel Tjaveondja revealed this last week during the National Council sessions while tabling the report.

The report was adopted on 21 August following role-player engagements held at Otjiwarongo from 6 to 10 July.

He said Namibian law does not restrict appointments to people from specific regions and stressed the need to balance inclusivity and diversity with merit and good performance.

The concerns are among several challenges the committee found to be affecting teachers and the quality of education.

TUN told the committee that teachers are struggling with poor housing and safety conditions, particularly in rural areas, where some live in overcrowded and unhygienic accommodation.

“Teacher accommodation must be made a standard component of new school construction, alongside essential facilities such as clinics. It also weighed in on the controversial Remoteness and Hardship Allowance, commonly known as the bush allowance.

“The committee welcomed the Office of the Prime Minister’s suspension of the revised allowance policy, which took effect on 1 July,” Tjaveondja said.

He said the abrupt removal of the allowance without consultation had undermined teachers’ trust and disrupted their monthly budgets.

The committee stressed that the allowance is not only financial support, but an incentive to attract and retain teachers in remote and hard-to-reach areas.

He said TUN also raised concerns over salary deductions, medical aid costs, unregulated micro-lenders and poor financial literacy, which it said were pushing teachers into debt and affecting their mental well-being.

The committee recommended stronger financial literacy and financial wellness programmes for teachers.

Another concern was the automatic promotion of failing pupils.

The committee agreed that automatically moving struggling pupils to the next grade contributes to poor education outcomes and recommended replacing the practice with remedial programmes and bridging classes.
Teachers’ workloads also came under scrutiny, with the committee finding that staffing norms based largely on pupil numbers do not adequately reflect workload realities and contribute to shortages of heads of department.

The committee recommended that staffing norms be reviewed.

“Some principals were selectively denying teachers opportunities to mark national examinations, limiting their professional development,” Tjaveondja revealed.

As such, the committee has recommended that regional education offices take over the selection of examination markers through a fair rotational system.

Beyond teachers, the report added that the committee also identified wider problems in education, including skills mismatches, graduate unemployment, inadequate infrastructure, delays in textbook procurement and weak links between education institutions and industry.

The committee called for a national education indaba to bring role-players together to address the systemic problems and align education with Namibia’s development needs.

Former National Assembly lawmaker Josef Kauandenge yesterday condemned findings of tribalism in teacher promotions, saying such practices have no place in Namibia’s education system.

“It is regrettable that such findings were observed in that report, as it has no place in our education system,” Kauandenge said.

He described promotions based on tribalism as “a cancer” that must be eradicated from the education system with immediate effect.

“It defeats the whole process of providing quality education to our children,” he said.

Kauandenge called on the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sport, Arts and Culture to urgently follow up on the findings and identify principals allegedly responsible for the practices and take decisive action against them.

“The ministry must with urgency follow up this report, identify those principals found to be the architects of this, and expel them from their positions immediately,” he said.

He said those found guilty should not continue occupying positions of trust, arguing that allowing them to remain in leadership would undermine confidence in the education system.

“It cannot be business as usual, where those making themselves guilty of this sad state of affairs can still continue to occupy positions of trust as principals,” Kauandenge said.

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