Education ministry to advertise 488 teaching posts

Majority of unemployed teachers qualified in junior primary phase
Mariselle Stofberg
The education ministry has, as part of their efforts of improving efficiency of use of resources, an internal audit was conducted to establish the magnitude of under- or over staffing of teachers in schools.

The minister of education, arts and culture (MoEAC) Ester Anna Nghipondoka announced that in terms of current filled and unfilled positions, only a 168 are eligible for advertisements. According to her the majority of unemployed teachers are qualified in the area of junior primary and the ministry has identified the need for 180 posts in the expansion of access to pre-primary phase.

“Further expansion of access is allowed another 140 posts. The 488 mentioned posts will be advertised through their respective regional directorates of education, arts and culture,” said Nghipondoka.

The MoEAC has acknowledge the receipt of lists of names of qualified yet unemployed teacher graduates. The lists were received through the petitioners, regional councils, the Namibia National Teachers Union (Nantu) and the office of the president. The education ministry captured all the names, contact details where provided as well as the type of qualification and area of specialisation.
The ministry is obliged to adhere to the recruitment process as stipulated in the Recruitment Policy Framework in the Public Service of Namibia. This means all vacant posts will be advertised in the local print media to give an equal opportunity to all graduates to apply for the post which they qualify for.

“Graduates will not be placed by the ministry and are urged to apply for the posts advertised,” she said.

Additionally, the ministry will advertise the posts currently filled by temporary teachers in a vacancy list. The adverts for these posts will only run for two weeks to spend up the recruitment process. Nghipondoka said that in the regions, priority must be given to the unemployed qualified graduates.