A cool head always prevails Judging by the events of last week which saw teachers embarking on strike action after a long-running dispute with the government over salary increases, it is clear that many pupils were left disappointed by both the teachers and the authorities.The process of negotiating for a salary hike of 8% has been quite an intricate one and we understand why teachers refused to stand by and watch their profession being attacked and undermined.
The teachers were demanding 8% increases, while the government said it could only offer 5%, because of a weak economy.
The strike action had a huge impact on the education sector as grade 10 and 12 examinations were disrupted in the process.
Although the outcome was a win-win situation for both civil servants and government, the intervention by President Hage Geingob and for having shown commitment to remain engaged with the unions, is a commendable one.
However, the serious differences between the union bosses and education minister Katrina Hanse-Himarwa are of great concern and could have far-reaching consequences within the state education system. Shortly after signing the agreement with government negotiators, the Namibia National Teachers'' Union (Nantu) blasted the minister, saying she was not fit to hold the position of education minister.
Nantu''s Basilius Haingura spoke of the minister''s “terrible attitude”, and further claimed that teachers have lost faith in her.
The good thing now is that the strike has ended, but the irreconcilable differences between teachers and the minister will hurt the poor learners who are the victims of this standoff.
We, however, think that there a lot of lessons to be learnt from this fight, including the need to always engage each other in mature way.
Our leaders must also realise that criticism of issues is not personal in nature and they should make allowances for the dissenting views of others.
We will also not achieve a level of good development without critically evaluating the performance of politicians who are the key people in this process. One can only hope that cooler heads will prevail this time around.