‘Latecomers should not miss school’

THE executive director of education, arts and culture, Sanet Steenkamp, has advised schools to come up with punitive measures to deal with latecomers at schools.

She has tasked school boards to establish rules and how they should be complied with.

Steenkamp’s concern stems from an incident at Otjiwanda Secondary School at Grootfontein last Thursday and Friday during which more than 100 pupils were allegedly sent home after arriving late for school.

“It is not right for a principal to have to make a decision for a child to miss out on school the whole day. Parents should not complain to the media, they should march over to the school to understand why the decision was made,” she said this week.

Steenkamp said the lack of consultation at schools is destructive.

“Work ethics starts with us respecting time.

A child who is late disrupts a class.

“Latecoming should not be tolerated. Parents and principals should sort this out. It is not correct for a child to miss one full day of learning, but it is also not correct for a child to be constantly late,” she said.

Nghilifa Reinhold, whose child was one of the affected pupils, says it was disheartening because her child had to walk for about 7km from Shamalindi informal settlement outside Grootfontein.

“My concern is also the high number of pupils who were sent home. It was almost half the school. The principal should have at least called the parents in for a meeting to discuss this matter,” he said.

A teacher at the school, who spoke to The Namibian on condition of anonymity, said latecomers were in the past punished with chores after school.

“We have no idea where sending children home comes from. The domestic circumstances of some of the pupils are understandable. We cannot let a girl walk in the dark and through the bushes from Shamalindi,” the teacher said.

She said the school has not had a parents’ meeting since last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

School principal Kamurongo Ikunua this week denied sending pupils home.

According to her, the involved pupils were locked out.

“School starts at 07h00. Unfortunately, we are not one of the schools with security guards who can be at the gate to control the movement of pupils,” she said.

Ikunua said latecoming has been a problem at the school and can no longer be tolerated.

“We tried warning them . . . These kids don’t seem to learn from it,” she said.

Former Walvis Bay school principal Paul Fisher says principals should make it their business to understand pupils’ backgrounds.

“Schools are not the same any more. But my advice is that teachers do house visits so that you can acquaint yourself with the circumstance of a pupil,” he said.

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