Iipumbu teacher quits over sex, abortion scandal
By Eliaser Ndeyanale
A teacher at Iipumbu Senior Secondary School in Oshakati has reportedly been forced to resign after he was accused of having impregnated a Grade 12 learner from the same school.
Matheus Paulus, who is well-known as Beckham, was employed as a Mathematics teacher at the school but has apparently been in an intimate relationship with the learner, who is said to have aborted the baby on the school premises on 24 October this year.
Sources close to the matter said the learner was boarding at the school, but later moved out of the hostel and went to stay with Paulus. It was not immediately clear whether the learner was staying with Paulus on the school premises, because the school principal who spoke through the secretary referred all questions to Oshana regional director of education Hileni Amukana.
Amukana confirmed the matter adding that investigations with the help of the Namibian Police are underway. “I understand the teacher has resigned from the school,” she said.
Confidente was informed though that on the day of the alleged abortion, the learner was due to write her final examination. “When the morning session of the examination commenced, the learner was accommodated in Mr Beckham’s house in the teachers’ houses on the school ground,” the sources said.
“As the school was searching for the child to come write the exams, she was seen coming out of Mr Beckham’s house but unfortunately it was too late for her to enter examination hall. At that moment the learner was experiencing pain but didn’t indicate that she was pregnant. Furthermore, the pain became intense and [that] is when the baby came out.
“This happened on the school ground … at the girls’ hostel.
“Police investigators came on board for further investigation and the learner attested to the abortion and all the items they used and where they got it from to abort the pregnancy,” the source with knowledge of the incident said.
It is also said that this was not the first time Paulus had been sexually involved with a learner. He apparently did this before at Onambutu Combined School in Ohangwena region, where he was reportedly involved in a relationship with a Grade 8 learner before he was suspended for eight years.
“Learners and parents at Iipumbu SSS are tired of these teacher-learner relationships. The learners indicated that they knew of the relationship of Mr Beckham and the learner and the plans of aborting the pregnancy. It’s not only Mr Matheus who was involved with learners at Iipumbu Senior Secondary School but a lot of teachers, institutional workers and matrons,” the person told Confidente.
The source said the Ministry of Education should take decision that every teacher found to be involved in a relationship with a learner must be brought to book: “People of this nature belong behind bars, if you let them free, the more you put our children in danger.
“Mr Mathew was reported that he resigned on the same day of the incident from his duties as a teacher at Iipumbu Senior Secondary School. What if he gets another job at a different school and does it to your child? These are evildoers, let all education regions and the whole of Namibia know about these people. This person doesn’t deserve to be a teacher at all.
“This incident was reported to the police on the same day. The Namibian Police and Ministry of Gender: do your job and bring the culprit to book. Help our children and punish those that need to be punished. We, the parents, cannot tolerate this behavior. If you don’t take action we are going to take the law into our own hands.”