Africa-Press – Namibia. THE education ministry has requested all schools and hostels to provide reports on the funds available in their development fund accounts.
This was contained in a document addressed to chief regional officers and education regional directors yesterday. The communiqué was signed off by the ministry’s executive director, Sanet Steenkamp, who confirmed it comes after parents were unhappy that schools are still requesting funds for stationery, despite the government having made grants available.
“The current public outcry regarding the increased reliance of schools on parents to provide school stationery is worrisome, more so while schools are receiving the universal primary and secondary grants,” Steenkamp said.
The ministry has already made N$51 million available for stationery for the year 2021/22, and N$36 million has already been spent by the regions to buy it, while the remainder was sent to schools directly. Steenkamp said 65% of the funds should go straight to teaching and learning.
The N$51 million that was already paid in March 2021 was disbursed in two amounts. Some regions, like the Ohangwena region, had a bid allocation for every circuit and spent N$6,3 million. Their stationery is being delivered.
Other regions made the funds available to the schools themselves. “Still the schools received the funding for stationery but now we see that there are still costs brought to parents. which they should not be carrying,” Steenkamp said.
She added that on top of the N$56 million, 81% of N$152 million of the universal primary and secondary grant was disbursed to schools nationally as at 30 November last year.
“There is a need for an assessment of balances in school and hostel development fund accounts to ascertain available funds, for possible procurement of stationery at school level,” Steenkamp said.
The ministry wants a report highlighting the balance in each school and hostel development fund bank account per region, clearly outlining other sources of funding apart from the annual grant paid by the government.
“These must be submitted to my office no later than Wednesday, 12 January 2022.”
Steenkamp added that all schools have a guideline on what should be requested from parents, which includes things like rulers, sharpeners, erasers and small Oxford dictionaries, if need be.
“The reason why we sent out that guideline is for parents and principals to be fully aware, so that parents are not inundated with unnecessary requests. They need to be fully aware of what the schools can cover, and what parents can contribute.”
Steenkamp said a list has been made available to parents, and schools must say what they will provide, while parents are requested to make available the most basic things.
The idea is to have an open dialogue at school level between the parents, to hold the school accountable to say what they are making available, and what is expected of parents.
“We can’t tolerate excessive luxuries requested from the parents. The parents’ role and responsibility is to invest in their children’s education. We want them to join us in that,” she said. Schools are expected to reopen on 10 January.
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