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Exams to go on as planned during Namibian teachers strike: PM

Xinhua, October 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

Examinations in Namibia will go ahead as scheduled even if the teachers go on strike on Oct. 13, the Office of the Prime Minister said Saturday.

Namibian teachers announced Friday that they will embark on an indefinite strike from Oct. 13 after the government refused to give them an 8 percent salary increase.

Instead, the government said it can only afford 5 percent this financial year and another 7 percent for the 2017/18 financial year.

The strike comes when more than 700,000 pupils are due to sit for their end of year examinations.

In a statement Saturday, the Office of the Prime Minister said teaching and writing of national examinations will go ahead as scheduled.

Although the statement admitted that monitoring the examinations during the strike will be a huge logistics challenge, it also said government will ensure that the situation in schools is conducive for learning.

The government, the statement said, fully respects the rights of its staff members to participate in lawful industrial action, as long as such does not infringe upon the fundamental rights of learners to education and to examinations in a peaceful environment.

The Namibia National Teachers Union secretary general, Basilius Haingura, said Friday that they would give the government, the police and the labor commission seven days' notice.

Haingura also said a mediator who chaired a three-day meeting between the union and the government from Wednesday until Friday gave them the right to be 500 meters from the school premises during the strike.

He also said those teachers willing to work during the strike will be allowed to do so.

The government, however, said 500 meters would disrupt examinations and that the seven days' notice was not enough to allow for recruiting volunteers to run the examinations.

President Hage Geingob, Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and the education minister Katrina Hanse-Himarwa have already said government would invoke the 'no work, no pay' policy for teachers who participate in the strike. Endit