‘No irregularities’ at Omaruru school, says Ministry official

THE Deputy Director of Education in Erongo, Mark Jacobs, says there are no indications of irregularities at the SI !Gobs Secondary School at Omaruru, where exams were delayed on Monday because of a missing key.

The Namibian reported earlier this week that a teacher had misplaced the keys to the safe containing the exam papers for Grade 10 English and Grade 12 Accounting. As a result, the exams were delayed by up to three hours before the key was found.Sources claimed that Grade 12 pupils were allowed to leave the exam hall at 10h30, giving them an opportunity to phone pupils at other schools who had already written the examination at the scheduled time between 08h00 and 09h30.The SI !Gobs pupils only started their accounting exam at 11h00.There were also fears that the keys had been taken by someone to tamper with the safe and papers, but Jacobs said an inspection proved that no such tampering took place.The school’s principal, Harold Clarke, confirmed that the key had been misplaced and that there was a delay, but denied the other allegations.He said the pupils were kept in the exam hall until they had finished the exam.According to Jacobs, the school submitted a report on Monday’s incident to the regional education directorate.He added that the safe’s lock had been changed and that the principal would keep the keys from now on to prevent something similar happening again.”We must always ascertain in incidents like these if there had been irregularities, but we have found none.We found the rest of the allegations to be untrue,” Jacobs said.He said the report on the inspection would be sent to the Ministry’s head office in Windhoek for review, but he believed that no further investigation would be necessary.Jacobs also rejected rumours doing the rounds yesterday that a US Peace Corps volunteer teacher had been suspended for leaking news of the exam delay to the press.”These are unfounded allegations by elements that maliciously want to discredit the school,” Jacobs said.He said as far as he knew, no Peace Corps volunteer was working at the school.Jacobs further stated that no teacher had been suspended over the matter, and that there was no ‘witch-hunt’ to find out who had made the allegations.”We do not witch hunt.It is futile and a waste of time.It is just sad that the damage has been done, and the school discredited,” he said.As a result, the exams were delayed by up to three hours before the key was found.Sources claimed that Grade 12 pupils were allowed to leave the exam hall at 10h30, giving them an opportunity to phone pupils at other schools who had already written the examination at the scheduled time between 08h00 and 09h30.The SI !Gobs pupils only started their accounting exam at 11h00.There were also fears that the keys had been taken by someone to tamper with the safe and papers, but Jacobs said an inspection proved that no such tampering took place.The school’s principal, Harold Clarke, confirmed that the key had been misplaced and that there was a delay, but denied the other allegations.He said the pupils were kept in the exam hall until they had finished the exam.According to Jacobs, the school submitted a report on Monday’s incident to the regional education directorate.He added that the safe’s lock had been changed and that the principal would keep the keys from now on to prevent something similar happening again.”We must always ascertain in incidents like these if there had been irregularities, but we have found none.We found the rest of the allegations to be untrue,” Jacobs said.He said the report on the inspection would be sent to the Ministry’s head office in Windhoek for review, but he believed that no further investigation would be necessary.Jacobs also rejected rumours doing the rounds yesterday that a US Peace Corps volunteer teacher had been suspended for leaking news of the exam delay to the press.”These are unfounded allegations by elements that maliciously want to discredit the school,” Jacobs said.He said as far as he knew, no Peace Corps volunteer was working at the school.Jacobs further stated that no teacher had been suspended over the matter, and that there was no ‘witch-hunt’ to find out who had made the allegations.”We do not witch hunt.It is futile and a waste of time.It is just sad that the damage has been done, and the school discredited,” he said.