A parents’ organisation has demanded that the education ministry start training teachers on safety to minimise the number of accidents, when children go on school trips.
This comes after the body of O’linn Nauyoma (16) from Etosha Secondary School was finally retrieved after, he drowned while on a learners representative council training tour in September 2024.
His body was retrieved on Wednesday at Lake Guinas near Tsumeb. This is not the first time a pupil has drowned during a school trip.
In 2017, a school trip to the Orange River near Noordoewer in the //Kharas region ended in tragedy when St George’s Diocesan School pupil Tunga Kakololo drowned while swimming.
The Grade 11 pupil at the Windhoek school was reported missing by teachers and pupils who were with him on the excursion.
Speaking to The Namibian yesterday, National Organisation of Parents in Education founder Paulus Hawanga said teachers need to be trained on basic safety measures to ensure the safety of pupils on and off the school grounds.
Hawanga said first aid skills can be of great help when teachers need to help someone who collapsed, or a child who is drowning or injured.
He said teachers and schools need to make use of the expertise of parents who are in different fields to train pupils and teachers.
“Parents can come in and provide these skills, even basics to the teachers, basics to the pupils, basics to the school boards, so that they can provide a conducive, healthly environment for our children, whether in the school or home,” he said.
Hawanga said the organisation is advocating for the ministry of education to “walk the talk”.
He called for more parental involvement in school activities outside of the school board.
“When we are saying we want parental involvement, we are not just talking about the school board. We are talking about the environment, the community, the society,” Hawanga said.
According to him, parents are only involved when prize-giving ceremonies take place and the ministry only focuses on teachers, principals, inspectors, meetings and workshops. Teachers Union of Namibia secretary general Mahongora Kavihuha has called on the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture to implement a professional development policy on how teachers should be refreshed with knowledge in their fields.
He was speaking to The Namibian yesterday.
He added that this should not only be considered in terms of first aid training, but curriculum-wise as well.
According to Kavihuha, the continuous professional development of a teacher should be regulated and budgeted for, but this can only happen if the ministry of education comes up with a comprehensive continuous professional development policy. Kavihuha said the other component of the issue is the pupils themselves. He said when taking pupils on a trip, a background check must be done to assess their exposure to different things.
“Sometimes, when you are going places with pupils, it’s very important that their backgrounds are checked so that you don’t bring a pupil from Okakarara, where there is no swimming pool, to a swimming pool,” he said.
Kavihuha said the timing of school trips and the objectives of these trips should be looked at, adding that continuous engagement should always be there for all stakeholders to ensure there is a flow of information and accountability.
“We cannot run away from these trips. These are educational trips and they are required in international practice and a part of any curriculum,” Kavihuha said.
He said the drowning of the pupil at Lake Guinas was an accident that could have been prevented.
Ministry of education executive director Sanet Steenkamp says the ministry has a circular that adresses the safety and the protection of pupils at school and on trips.
Steenkamp says the pupils were not supposed to go to Lake Guinas in the first place.
“The ministry will take the required action and we are still launching a full-scale investigation into this matter,” she says, adding that children should not be exposed to places that could harm them.
“That shouldn’t have happened in the first place.”
Steenkamp says it is important to have open discussions about where pupils go on their trips.
“The identification of a place of excursion for either team building or leadership capacity development needs to be considered so that the place selected does not pose a potential danger for children,” she says.
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