Education And Politics

ALLOW me space in your highly-esteemed newspaper to comment on the recent reaction of the community against donations given to Haihambo Primary School by RDP president Hidipo Hamutenya in Ohangwena region.

Ohangwena is one of the regions that has poorly performing schools every year. Yet politicians are continuously putting their ugly political heads in the education of innocent children by poisoning the community with their gospel of politics that doesn’t have the future of our children at heart.They want to have the principal of Haihambo Primary School fired simply because she received donations from an opposition party leader and has allowed Hidipo Hamutenya to be a patron of the school. What a shameful thing!Our region is sick and is in dire need of political and social rehabilitation. A lesson to learn is that, none of the Namibian schools belongs to any of the Namibian political parties. Swapo, which the community is supposedly fighting for, is no exception. What if an opposition leader donates tents to Ponhofi Senior Secondary School learners who are residing at the police station due to lack of hostel accommodation? Will they throw the future of their children into dustbins by rejecting tents because they are not from Swapo?They should rather concentrate on how to uplift the region’s current educational standard rather than oppose and reject support in fighting challenges that our education system faces.To sum up, education is a shared responsibility of all Namibians regardless of their political differences and affiliations. Let us not ruin the future of a Namibian child through our failure to distinguish between education and politics. Working in harmony as a nation will enable us not only to face the challenges in the education of our children but also overcome them.Director of Education in Ohangwena, Sanet Steenkamp, keep up your visionary leadership!Christian MululuBy email