Political Perspective

PERHAPS Education Minister Abraham Iyambo has provided some light relief in an otherwise rather depressing time, by going ‘undercover’ as a construction worker to a local school.

But I’m afraid the visit, ostensibly designed to check on teacher absenteeism, doesn’t make much sense to me and I don’t really see the point. I do realise that many of us call on senior Government officials to be more proactive and ‘hands-on’, and innovative it may be considered by some, but this sort of thing can go from the sublime to the ridiculous if we are not careful.KUDOS to someone like Health Minister Richard Kamwi, who is making a point of going unannounced at various hospitals and clinics. This is positive because he doesn’t pose as anyone else but merely wants the element of surprise on his side. If such visits were pre-planned, it stands to reason that the hospital authorities in question would ensure staff would be on the job and on best behaviour and the premises would be spruced up in advance as well! But he does not (as far as I am aware) arrive in disguise as a nurse or an orderly in order to make his inspection under false pretences!To get back to the Iyambo visit to Centaurus – I fail to understand how he could be ‘undercover’ when he’s got an NBC TV crew in tow to immediately blow his cover? My next question would be how he could have successfully gained access dressed in this garb to establish whether teachers were or weren’t at work. Maybe I’m missing something here but the whole thing sounds ludicrous and the Teachers Union of Namibia (TUN) have probably quite rightly risen up in protest, describing this as an abuse of power.Subterfuge and underhand activities are not to be condoned, no matter who is doing it and there would need to be overwhelming public interest to justify such tactics.There are implicit dangers in doing things like this. Note the recent public uproar at people posing as census workers and visiting homes, perhaps even thinly veiled attempts to scout out for later burglarising and break-ins. Activists, for example, perhaps legitimately and in the face of great official secrecy surrounding the controversial seal cull, would soon be charged with trespassing and any number of offences for trying to gain access to this bloody business.It is also well known that even ‘camouflage’ clothing was banned for a while (may even still be!) in order to prevent people from looking like military personnel, and of course it is a criminal act to pose as a police officer. In a recent reported case a young woman, arrested near or at Hakahana clinic for wearing a nurse’s uniform, has been charged for doing so ‘without permission’.Point is, I think, that Minister Iyambo or any other Minister wanting to investigate issues really does not need to resort to subterfuge to do so. No reason why he couldn’t have arrived unannounced simply as himself! One is also forced to wonder, what with the lion’s share of the education budget going into administration and salaries, why school inspectors, for example, aren’t doing exactly what Minister Iyambo was attempting to do. Isn’t this, in fact, their job?The whole thing smacks more of a publicity stunt than a genuine concern about whether teachers are awol or not. And why on earth a construction worker? Perhaps he just has a penchant for overalls! Sounds like, with an expensive, just-held education conference under his belt, that he’s at a bit of a dead-end as to what to do with about this national dilemma.Some members of the public obviously think that what Iyambo is doing is great, and there are calls on him to do the same in other parts of the country, that is, if he doesn’t run out of disguises first! I would instead recommend that he do spot checks at schools, as the Minister of Health is doing at hospitals, but that he do so honestly and openly without resorting to pretence. If he simply deploys the element of surprise, he will probably have more success.The point also is not to side with pupils against teachers, or to pit teachers against a principal. It simply exacerbates the polarisation and heightens the blame-game. In the huge mess which is our education system there is fault on all sides. The pupils aren’t perfect but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t those who will be disciplined and hard-working scholars aiming for the top! The teachers aren’t blameless either. And for all of those who mess with schoolgirls or don’t bother with preparing for their classes or upgrade their skills, there are those who are dedicated to their craft and professional in all they do.Minister Iyambo, in my view, clearly needs to change his tactics to achieve more in the interests of good education.