President Hage Geingob on Monday said corporal punishment has no place in the modern world while urging learners to take their studies seriously.

Geingob made the remarks while engaging learners and teachers from the Tsumeb English Medium School, Ontana Combined School, and Nehale Secondary School who toured State House.

Geingob said he has always opposed corporal punishment, even when he was a teacher prior to independence, and urged teachers to instead get involved.

He implored learners to study hard, saying that education opens doors.

“Education can also make us. I was born on a farm and as a farm worker, I became a teacher and president of the country because of education,” he said.

During the interaction, the learners asked the president questions on different topics, including what he considered to be his greatest success as president thus far.

Maintaining peace and stability since Namibia’s independence was the greatest achievement, he responded, noting that it was, however, “the collective work of many people,” some of whom the learners never heard about, but they are the ones who have been delivering.

On his part, Johannes Fillemon, a science teacher from Ontana Combined School in Onyuulaye circuit in the Oshikoto Region, said the visit to the State House was an opportunity for learners to meet the Head of State in person.

They were also expected to visit various institutions in Windhoek, including the Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) and the University of Namibia (Unam).

“This is very helpful, especially when visiting the Nust and Unam campuses. Like our school, we don’t have a physical science laboratory. I am a science teacher, but when I teach, I have to improvise, like showing them some videos, so by visiting these campuses, they will actually get to see how things work, and we are going to do some practicals,” he said.

Source: Namibia Press Agency