Adult education officers fume over pay

Adult education officers fume over paySlow rectification of downgrading The education ministry is accused of moving at a snail's pace in reversing a poor decision to downgrade the salary scale of adult literacy officers. Adult education officers are up in arms over a decision by the ministry of education to downgrade them on the public service of Namibia remuneration grading scale. While attempts have been made to correct the mishap, the ministry is accused of moving at a snail's pace to fix the grading.

“They were placed at Grade 8 on the scale and were later downgraded to Grade 9. The ministry has agreed that they made a mistake but there has been a delay in terms of grading the adult education officers correctly,” Trade Union Congress of Namibia secretary general Mahongora Kavihuha told Namibian Sun.

He added that the ministry had done an analysis to determine how much it would cost to pay the adult education officers.

“There is already a cost study done. It was completed in April 2019 and was already supposed to be implemented,” he said.

According to Kavihuha, the union got the impression that the ministry had put its foot down.

He said the union would take unspecified decisive action in the absence of the ministry formally pronouncing itself and making a decision regarding the matter.

“If the ministry does not pronounce itself by the end of this month, we will be taking very serious action. They are not being sensitive to the needs of adult education officers, they are not recognising adult education officers, they are undermining adult education officers and their learners,” Kavihuha added.

“We have been patient enough as a union but they are taking us for granted.” Kavihuha said while the plight of education officers was being addressed adequately in other parts of the world, this was not the case for Namibia.

“Adult education does not rank high on their list of priorities. Adult education is a major component of lifelong learning. The ministry is moving backwards, demonstrated by the way they are handling the issue,” he said.

Ministry of education spokesperson Absalom Absalom said the matter would be addressed in due course, though not giving an indication of time.

“The referred issue is receiving attention internally and we (the ministry) will have a complete response once the exercise is ­completed.”

OGONE TLHAGE