14 Apr 2013

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development has bought 35 houses in Maun to address teachers' accommodation problems.

The director of education for Ngamiland region, Mr Acro Maseko confirmed in an interview that P17.3 million was spent the houses, which would  improve teachers’ accommodation.

He stated that the houses had been allocated to teachers across the board and priority was given to married couples and congested schools where teachers were sharing a room while some had no accommodation at all.

He said married ones were allocated two-bedroomed houses while unmarried teachers were allocated three bed-roomed houses so that they could share.

“Unmarried teachers were previously sharing a room but this time, they would be sharing a house. We believe this is a good step in the right direction,” he added.

Mr Maseko said that they were also renovating eight houses in various schools. He said they had also issued an advert for people with houses they could rent out to meet visit their offices.

The director also announced that teachers’ houses at Xabara Primary School were near completion and hoped that in near future, they would be handed in for allocation and thus reduce sharing of houses.

He expressed happiness that teachers had welcomed the development as they saw it as a positive move adding that the ministry would continue to attend to issues of teachers’ welfare so that quality education could be attained.

Mr Maseko also stated that his department was exploring possibilities of enticing trained teachers to serve in rural areas. He decried the fact that trained teachers declined to serve in remote areas and pointed out that efforts were being made to attract and retain teachers in remote areas. He said teachers had been provided with 19kg cylinders as an incentive. He also noted that they were currently in negotiations with relevant stakeholders to pursue free rentals and to install solar panels.

Regarding the renovation at Maun Senior Secondary School, the director said the project was progressing well, adding that a porta-cabin had been purchased to assist in the situation. He said a preliminary report written by structural engineers had shown that structures were heavily affected and there was further investigation going on to map the way forward.

The school was gutted by fire last October leaving a block of four classrooms in a bad state while another block of four classrooms was gutted again the same month. ENDS