Education is a promise to every child – Caley

Deputy minister of education, arts and culture Faustina Caley has implored stakeholders in the Kavango West region to continue achieving excellence in education.

She says education is not just a service but a promise to every Namibian child that everyone must uphold with dedication and consistency.

Speaking at an engagement aiming to ensure academic improvements in the region on Thursday, she emphasised the importance of effective school leadership for quality teaching and learning.

“As principals, heads of department and senior educators, your role extends beyond administration. It is about vision, motivation, and setting a culture of high expectations. Improved school leadership will foster environments where teachers feel supported and learners are empowered,” the deputy minister said.

Caley acknowledged the challenge of limited resources in schools in the region, saying senior educators must cultivate a culture of maximising what they have.

“Strategic resource allocation, innovative problem-solving, and partnerships with the private sector can help us get more done with less,” she said, adding that every stakeholder has a role to play in ensuring that schools are adequately resourced and pupils receive the best possible education.

Additionally, Caley encouraged regional stakeholders to ensure pupils are exposed to digital education from an early age.

Speaking at the same meeting, Kavango West region education director Pontianus Musore stressed the need for increased parental involvement in pupils’ lives to address the region’s education challenges and lack of hostel facilities which result in pupils’ absenteeism due to long distances walked daily to and from schools.

“If everyone honours the Education Act 3 of 2020, which outlines parental obligations towards pupils, we will not have dropouts, vandalism, or teenage pregnancy and we will have excellent academic performances,” Musore stated.

He urged parents to instil discipline at home to combat ill-discipline of pupils at school and to teach their children to respect school property.

Musore highlighted several contributing factors to the region’s low performance, including pupils being promoted without mastering basic competencies, insufficient resources, especially textbooks, lack of funds to conduct workshops in all subjects to address teachers’ needs, and no action taken against non-performing teachers.

He suggested interventions to improve performance, for example, monitoring of absenteeism of teachers and pupils, including a recovery plan with action taken, and continuous awareness of social factors such as gender-based violence, teenage pregnancy and drug abuse.

Musore further called on teachers to deliver quality instructions aligned with the curriculum and syllabus, and to provide crucial pupil support.

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