Private school teachers demand money owed to them

TEACHERS at Dr Rita Johnson Christian Private School are demanding seven months worth of salaries owed to them by the school.

A teacher at the private school in Windhoek, who asked to remain anonymous, said the school owes them money that accumulated when they were not paid for seven months in 2017.

At the time, the school administration informed them that the delay in their salaries was as a result of parents’ failure to pay their children’s fees. The school caters for children from Grade 1 to Grade 7, and has 12 teachers.

“We were told that the school does not have money. Now, I am hungry and my children at home are hungry because you [parents] did not pay for ‘X’s’ school fees,” lamented the teacher, adding that their salaries, which are due on the 28th of every month, are only paid days later.

The teacher said despite being told that the reason behind them not being paid is due to the non-payment of school fees, they have observed that it may not exactly be the case.

“Sometimes, they force pupils whose parents are not paying to sit in the hallway for the day as a way of suspending them so that the parents can come. When you see how many children are sitting in the hall, there would be around 20 pupils, but the school in total has over 3 000 pupils,” she explained.

“Now, because of those handful of parents who are not paying, we are not getting a salary, while the maximum number of parents are paying,” she continued.

Another teacher at the school, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said 10 of the teachers had laid a complaint against the school in August with the ministry of labour.

“We have opened a case with the ministry of labour, and have asked them to treat this case as an emergency because we fear that should November come and the school closes, we are going to get nothing,” stressed the teacher.

The teachers are currently not registered with a teachers’ union, and thus keep having to involve the ministry of labour to resolve recurring labour-related conflicts with the school.

“We do not belong to any union because the union has to deduct from the payslips, and we do not have payslips,” added the teacher. The teachers also said they do not receive benefits such as medical aid.

The teacher continued that at times when they had received their salaries, they would notice the school would have made deductions for social security contributions, but would not pay the money over to the service providers. Both the principal, Regina Shituleni, and the school director, Wahl Abrahams, refused to comment when approached by .