Sacky200631144

Strike at the Windhoek Vocational Training Centre (WVTC)

WINDHOEK – Strike at the Vocational Training Centre (WVTC) set the day off when students locked its gates complaining about the discontinuation of refunds on excess money on their study loans.Students asked the management why they no longer receive refunds on excess money on their study loans. The students started demonstrating at 06h00.When staffs arrived at the vocational Monday 01 October 2012 morning they found the gates to the college locked.

Students Complains

The spokesperson, Rabbi Kalomo who present a petition on their behalf, claim that over the past two years they have become aware that management “misuses” student loans.

• Students say they have been paying for hostel accommodation, while the loan from the NSFAF covers all expenses, from tuition fees to accommodation and transportation.
• Second-year plumbing student, Ilovu Sakaria, says the study loans of N$21 000 a year should be used for the exact purpose as allocated by the government.
• "We want our refunds so we can use it for hostel accommodation and transport".
• We are suffering [and] some of us have to walk long distances from Okahandja Park to VTC. *The students also asked why they are not paid for the tenders they work on.
• We spend N$450 on transport every month, while management is using our refunds for their personal gain”

Principal comments

Paulus Haukongo, the principal at WVTC, said the students misunderstood their loan structure. “Whatever income we get in terms of our fee structure: the government grants and contributions from private sector are used to pay costs managed at the centre, including paying staff members,” he said. Last year, Minister of Education Abraham Iyambo was a reportedly “shocked” by what he found when he visited the same centre and demanded improvements. Two years ago, students at the WVTC put pressure on the management to ditch what they described as a controversial curriculum called the Competency Based Education Teaching (C-BET) system.