The Director of Education, Arts and Culture in the ||Kharas Region, |Awebahe ||Hoeseb, said when government resorted to offer fee-free education, it was done to remove the financial burden from parents.
||Hoeseb, who was speaking at a regional advocacy on the Basic Education Act (Act 3 of 2020) here on Wednesday, said government schools who are asking for money from parents are doing so illegally as government provides funds to all schools from taxpayer money for parents not to pay for school and to ensure that every Namibian child goes to school.
“Those schools that are asking for contributions from learners saying it is a compulsory contribution are wrong. They should explain what the contributions are for as we provide for everything,” he stressed.
||Hoeseb slammed assertions that schools are asking for contributions from parents because government is not providing enough resources to schools.
“Those are government schools and government will provide reasonable resources to these schools, but government will not know if schools lack resources if the schools themselves do not say they need such resources,” he said.
Blouwes Primary school principal, Andy Gariseb raised a concern that some schools that have made the voluntary contribution compulsory, are depriving learners of an education.
“I think government should come up with a way for the voluntary contributions to remain voluntary. On the issue that government does not give schools enough funds, I don’t believe in that because government pays per head, meaning if we are able to provide effective and quality education for 110 learners with the funds we receive, then why can a school with more learners not use the funds to provide effective and quality education since they receive more,” he said.
The meeting was attended by teachers, learners, church leaders and traditional leaders.
Other discussions by the participants ranged from pregnancies among school learners and discipline at schools, among others.
At the same occasion, Senior Education Officer, Otillie Lamberth, said the advocacy meeting was held for the ministry to reach stakeholders in education for their input on the regulations on the Basic Education Act (Act 3 of 2020).
Source: Namibia Press Agency
