THE permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Alfred Ilukena, has instructed all regional education offices to deduct money from teachers who participated in an illegal strike last November.

The amount to be deducted will be calculated according to the number of days teachers were absent and their salary scales, The Namibian was informed.

The Karas regional director, Petrus Titus, on Friday confirmed having received the directive from the permanent secretary.

Pecka Semba, the acting education director of Omaheke, said they had also received the directive, but "we have not instituted this yet. There are still some technicalities that we need to iron out."

Faustina Caley, the Otjozondupa regional director, said teachers were notified of the deductions. She said the deductions will be done gradually, and some teachers will have their money deducted sooner than others.

"The process has already started. We will deduct according to the number of days a teacher was absent during the strike and according to their salaries," she said.

One teacher who participated in the strike said this would cause misunderstanding, as some teachers were on strike even if they were in their classrooms. "Some teachers would show up at school, but they would not give class because they were part of the strike," she said.