Staff Reporter
THE Executive Director within the Ministry of Education Arts and Culture, Sanet Steenkamp has sai that the Minna Sachs Primary School Principle appointment should have never been a controversial issue, as the candidate which had come out first in the interviews should not have been interviewed in the first place as they lacked critical documents.
She added that the Teaching Service Committee, chaired by a Public Service Commissioner, along with independent members of the Teachers Service Committee, including the union, sat with the Secretariat and looked at whether all due processes were followed. She added that these bodies determined that the candidate did not have their probation confirmed and was not supposed to be interviewed in the first place.
Steenkamp said this in reaction to LPM member Michael Amushelelo, who led a protest against the appointment of the school’s principal on Monday morning, effectively shutting the school down. “My fellow Namibians, today the parents of Minna Sachs Primary School have blocked the gates of the school due to an unfair procedural appointment of the school principal. This principal came out second in the interview, and despite the school board’s recommendation that the individual who came first should be appointed, that recommendation was ignored,” Amushelelo wrote.
Responding to the uproar, Steenkamp explained that this information is incorrect.
“This information is totally incorrect. The ED, myself, and the ED of Justice, Gladice Pickering, visited the region on Thursday and Friday last week. The first meetings were held with the school board, the parent component, as well as the teacher component to explain why the person that the school board during the interview observed, and that was nominated to become first even by the panel, could not be appointed. We are working according to the recruitment processes of this country, the Public Service Act, as well as the Education Act. The Public Service Act makes it very clear that any person who wishes to apply for a promotional position must have his or her probation confirmed by or before the date of the advertisement for the post for which he or she wishes to apply. There was an administrative oversight,” Steenkamp said.
She added that the chairperson of the school board, when engaged on Friday, said he does not want someone who does not speak KhoeKhoegowab; he wants the person to be swapped or wants the post to be re-advertised.
” Neither of these is constitutional or within the ambit of the legal frameworks of what we do in our country. Despite hours of consultation, the school board chairperson verbally resigned from his duties as a school board chairperson. We carried out the mandate and directives of the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture. We introduced the school principal to the parents that were there on Friday, and the teachers welcomed her with much warmth and understanding. This issue is being politicized by the LPM. This is a sad day in the democracy of our country, where people are infringing the right of education of children and the right of a person to be appointed on merit, where she applies and was found fit to serve,” Steenkamp concluded.
