Education crisis could have been avoided Thousands of children sat at home as the highly-publicised teachers'' strike started yesterday, countrywide following a court ruling in favour of the teachers.It is really unfortunate that innocent pupils now have to bear the brunt of the teachers'' strike, which could have been long avoided in the first place.
When teachers voted overwhelmingly to vote this was already an indication that we are headed towards a crisis, which has dire consequences for the Namibian child and our economy, especially in light of the current economic problems and the financial hardships facing our government. What followed was threats by the authorities and government officials actually went as far as comparing the salaries of Namibian teachers to their counterparts in South Africa and Botswana.
Their salary grades were published in the media and this clearly incited the situation further.
Teachers, rightly so, have the right to feel aggrieved by the conduct of politicians who are the first to conceal their hefty salary packages from the general public.
It is true that strike action only divides us a nation and no one really benefits from sit-ins of this nature.
Imagine the 700 000 pupils who are unable to attend classes. Imagine the Grade 10 and 12 children whose examinations are now being disrupted.
The learners whom the government professes to be helping are the victims here.
Although the right to strike is a constitutional right, government negotiators and Nantu had enough time to find a solution to this impasse.
It must be said that government has handled this process very poorly. There has been a clash of egos being played out on a national scale if one looks at this negotiation period.
It is really a pity that the negotiation teams couldn''t find any middle ground, which could have helped to avert unnecessary disruption to pupils and schools across the country. While government has expressed concern about the rights of children, is it only teachers who should have put children''s interests first, or should government have led by example?
These are sad times indeed.