By: Justicia Shipena
Rukwangali speaking parents say they don’t welcome the idea of multi-grade teaching for learners in grades 1 and 2.
This comes as Erongo education director has said they would combine grade 1 and 2 learners to be taught by one teacher in one class at Seaside Primary School in Walvis Bay.
Speaking on behalf of the parents on Thursday, Paulus Sikongo said they have a problem with combining the two grades for that subject.
“We don’t want them to be combined. If they need a teacher for the language, why don’t they advertise a vacancy post?” he questioned.
Sikongo said each grade should have its teacher.
“If you are saying they are having a shortage of classes, we (parents) are willing to volunteer for that so the children can be taught separately,” he said.
Furthermore, he claims that the school wants to combine but refuses to increase the number of learners enrolled in grade 2.
“They should allow them to go ahead and not stop them.”
Sikongo stressed that they want the subject to flow as before.
“We don’t want hiccups here and there.”
He told The Villager that now the parents await the date when the learners will commence with teaching and learning for this subject.
According to him, on Monday, some parents wanted space for Rukwangali for their children in Rukwangali and were rejected.
“In grade 2 for the language only has 18 learners, but there are parents who still come to me to help them enrol their children for grade 2.”
Sikongo added they are also offended by the decision to remove the language for grade 1 learners this year.
“And this is not starting this year. It started last year when they wanted to remove it for grade 1,” said Sikongo.
Hence, he stated that they had requested the ministry to look into the situation so that it wouldn’t have to repeat itself.
“Last year, our grade 1 learners started only end of February. I had to run up and down the whole of January last year to fight for this.”
As a result, he said, some parents started removing the learners from Seaside to other schools.
“I know of parents who took their to Rundu and Okahandja, and those few parents who were patient waited until the end of February,” he expressed.
He further said reports saying that they want the subject introduced into the curriculum are incorrect.
“We are not saying we want it to be introduced into the curriculum. The language is already in the curriculum for Erongo schools since 2018.”
Previously, education director Ernfriede Stephanus had said they are not refusing to take in learners for that subject.
Stephanus stated that the issues lie in the population of Erongo and the number of learners in Erongo.
During a meeting, Stephanus said they discovered that they are experiencing challenges in offering the subject for grade 1 learners.
“If already now in grade 1 we only had 11 learners, we started to look at whether we have enough learners in the community. So they see can continue the language in the school,” she said on Wednesday.
In this vein, she stated that they would be left with no option but to combine the two grades to form one class for a single teacher.
The debates in this matter continue.
