The Executive Director in the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture has called on directors to be transparent decision makers.

Sanet Steenkamp said transparency is crucial when it comes to procurement, appointments and many other aspects of managing the education sector.

Steenkamp called for a transparent workshop intended to finalise the ministerial strategic plan for the next five years.

Regional directors are attending the five-day event taking place at Swakopmund, which will also validate the annual ministerial plans for 2025/26.

"So let us be critical and also be transformative; let us be transparent about our decision-making in our procurement and in our decisions around appointments. You cannot unjustly allow that we do wrong when we do appointments and that we cause harm to others who rightfully need to get that position. The complaints are too many, there is something wrong. You must look at the diversity of this country, and it must be displayed in your institution because all of us have the opportunity to grow and be empowered and to receive in-service training, so please."

Steenkamp reminded the directors to remember three issues that are prominent in the Swapo Manifesto and National Development Plan 6 as they plan for the next five years.

She implored them to think on the transition from Early Childhood Development to pre-primary, with the goal of improving from 55 percent to 100 percent coverage.

She further reminded them to include the creative industry, heritage, and culture, as well as children with special needs.

"Every regional director needs to understand what is happening in the context of my region with children with special needs. How do I accommodate them? How do I plan for them? How do I cater to their needs? That they have, is it with a resource unit, a classroom first, while we are constructing the schools that we intend to construct?"

The commissioner of the Teaching Service Committee, Commissioner Habate Doëses, highlighted the lack of balanced structuring in the ministry.

"As I was engaging with somebody, they said we have problems in schools where people are reserving positions for some people, and I was extremely happy when the Executive Director cautioned us that when we visit our stakeholders, the Public Service Commission is inundated with an avalanche of submissions from regions that we make promotions on the basis of ethnicity, regionalism, or tribalism, and it's because there is something wrong in the way we do our recruitment; we don't have balanced structuring in mind."

Doëses said the committee is studying balanced structuring in public service to develop interventions needed to overcome the problem.