A dispute over the appointment of Windhoek High School’s new principal has renewed calls for greater decision-making powers for state school boards.
The National Organisation of Parents in Education (Naope) says school boards should have autonomy on appointments without the ministry’s interference.
This comes after the government-owned Windhoek High School (WHS) took the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sport, Arts and Culture to court, contesting the appointment of Teofilus Nuugulu as the school’s new principal.
Nuugulu, currently Okahandja Secondary School’s principal, was set to assume his new role this month.
Speaking to Desert FM yesterday, Naope chairman Paulus Hawanga said the current Education Act gives school boards the ability to endorse their recommendation.
Hawanga said if a school board is not keen to collaborate with an appointed school principal, processes at the school will not be smooth – even if the best school principal is appointed.
“If there’s no will to adhere to the procedures of the school governance from the school board and the school management committee to make sure we create that environment, then the principal, the school board and the school board chairperson will not effectively manage their affairs,” he said.
The Naope chair said school boards are often used for ceremonial purposes only, while being disregarded when it comes to key recruitment decisions.
“They will tell you today that there is an interview for a principal tomorrow, an interview for a head of department. So, I think this is where the concern is.
“They are also saying the interview process was not done with a proper and consistent consultation with the school,” he said.
In response, education minister Sanet Steenkamp dismissed the call to accord the boards of state-owned schools autonomy.
She cites the need for other structures to provide checks and balances and to ensure all processes are addressed, and where clashes emerge, to allow the courts to preside.
“You still have various checks and balances. So what checks and balances do we want to have if the school board is the decision-making power?
“So we cannot give a school board autonomy,” Steenkamp yesterday told The Namibian.
She said the ministry has made use of the Basic Education Act 3 of 2020 as its legal framework when appointing new principals to schools.
The act also governs the functions of school boards, she said.
Steenkamp said a union is involved to serve as observers during interviews, as well as school board members, to see that the process is authentic and credible.
Oshifukwa Combined School prinicipal John Mulundu says some of the main responsibilities of a school governing body are to recommend staff appointments, to develop schools’ vision and policies, and to promote schools’ welfare.
He says board members have the right to make consensual decisions within the parameters of statutory laws and regulations.
“In the case of WHS’ principal appointment, on clarification of the pass mark for both written and oral interviews, the board members and panel members were supposed to set up predetermined shortlisting criteria that would need approval from the executive director or chief regional officer,” Mulundu says.
Namibia National Teachers Union secretary general Loide Shaanika says if school boards wanted more power they should have indicated this the drafting of the Basic Education Act in 2020.
“There is a law that regulates that and the school board must just listen to what the law is saying. We don’t ask extra and no one is above the law – they were consulted. If they wanted more power, they should have indicated,” she says.
WHS’ board has denied claims that its legal challenge against the appointment of a new principal is racially driven, insisting that its concerns lie solely with procedural irregularities.
In a letter addressed to parents and guardians, the board says it has initiated legal proceedings to ensure compliance with the Basic Education Act, which requires school boards to be meaningfully consulted in key staffing decisions.
