Andrew Kathindi
President Hage Geingob on Monday bowed to the demands of teacher and student unions when he announced the resumption of face-to-face classes for Pre-Primary students will be postponed for 14 days in all regions.
The President’s decision comes after some unions called on the government to suspend the resumption of face-to-face teaching following confirmation of the first COVID-19 positive learner.
The 20-year old Mariental secondary school learner, who is a resident of Walvis Bay, became Namibia’s 37th case and gave rise to the decision to suspend face-to-face teaching at the school.
The 14 day suspension of in-school learning according to insiders who attended union meeting which lasted into the night on Friday, will give the unions ample time to monitor Covid-19 developments in the country. It will also break the stalemate on the ministry’s intentions to resume face-to-face teaching for pre-graders up to grade 3 this week as per its initial phase-in plan.
The meeting was attended by the Namibia National Teachers Union (NANTU), Namibia National Students Organisation (NANSO), Students Union of Namibia (SUN) and Teachers Union of Namibia (TUN).
“We had a fruitful meeting with the Office of the Prime Minister. You could see that our demands were accommodated as announced by His Excellency this afternoon (Monday). So, we are at least thankful that the government listened to our plea,” Nantu Secretary General, Loide Shaanika told Windhoek Observer.
Shaanika said the meeting with the Prime Minister came with a directive to further engage with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health to find a way forward in the next two weeks, at the end of which the pre-school to grade 3 learners will be expected to return to schools.
She said that while her union had initially called for all grades to be suspended, they had agreed with the education ministry on Friday to allow the grades 11 and 12 to continue.
Shaanika said case 37 was not the only one that gave them cause for concern as there were other suspected cases.
“As we are speaking, there are also suspected cases at Windhoek Vocational Training center (WVTC) and some of those students come from Walvis Bay. That’s the situation we want to arrest first before the fire spreads all over. There’s also a teacher who left Walvis Bay a few days ago at one of the Primary Schools in Khomas. So, it’s best we assess the situation so when we go back, we know the schools are safe, rather than going back in fear wondering who was in Erongo.”
The suspected situation at WVTC was confirmed by Health ministry Executive Director, Ben Nangombe.
“While I cannot share details, I was informed that there were health professionals there,” he said.
SUN Secretary General, Bernard Kavau condemned the decision to allow grades 11 and 12 in Erongo to resume classes.
“To us, this is more of a panic decision. We think the schools should have remained in lockdown considering Erongo is an epicenter of COVID-19. The government should be held liable if anything is to happen there,” he said.
Kavau however added, “We don’t work in isolation and we’ll continue to engage TUN and NANTU. But we believe to allow schools to continue even after 14 days is very dangerous; when you consider that some schools in the rural areas are in dilapidated conditions. It is also not fair that some leaners should start classes while others wait.”
