The Governor of Kavango East Region, Bonifatius Wakudumo, has called on unemployed teachers to refrain from operating illegal schools.

Wakudumo says these schools will have to close their doors and allow the learners to be enrolled in formal schools as soon as possible.

The Governor says the government has a responsibility towards every Namibian child as far as education is concerned, and he advises unemployed qualified teachers to follow the right procedure for employment.

"I am appealing to you as much as you are unemployed. Don't take the law into your own hands. If there are vacancies at various schools, the normal procedure is that you apply for employment. You cannot come here and et children together and put them in front of you to get employment. It doesn't work. If there are any vacancies, apply like everybody else. As a government, we cannot allow this type of thing to happen."

Wakudumo also advised parents not to enroll their children at any school without clear knowledge of its foundation.

"Parents, we cannot just allow everybody to take your child and say they are going to offer that child education. As parents, God has entrusted us with those kids; we need to take responsibility to take our children to a formal school registered with and administered by the government. And when we talk about the government in education, there's a circuit inspector, there's a deputy director, and you have up to the level of the director. Those are the doors we need to knock on when we want to establish schools," added Cornelius Naiteta, the headman of Siguruguru Village.

It is understood that parents agreed to the operation of the illegal school so their children would not have to walk long distances.

Naiteta says he allocated land for the school because services such as health and education are far from the village.

"I availed the land so that we can have a school and a clinic nearby. People suffer from traveling long distances to get medical attention. If we have a clinic here, they can even call an ambulance if they need fast health assistance. I availed this land for the school for the sake of the little ones and also the marginalized people. We have them here sitting at home because the schools are far, far away."

The school in question is less than a kilometer from the formal Siguruguru Combined School.  

There are more than five hundred learners at these schools.