Dear list members,
According to the CIA's World Factbook tomorrow is Namibia's
independence day.
The apparent 15 year failure of Namibia's education reforms can be
understood in part from the structure of the national economy. The
GINI index, an important indicator of income distribution, is
extraordinarily high (70). This indicates a very large concentration
of wealth in the hands of only a tiny fraction of the people. Nearly
70 percent of the population has the choice of engaging in subsistence
agriculture or mining. Despite healthy-looking external accounts
supported largely by those who spend their working lives underground,
the national debt represents more than a third of national annual
income. These facts suggest government extravagance and worker
exploitation. Thirty-five percent of the population is unemployed.
Nineteen percent of national income is spent on gross fixed
investment. After 15 years of independence one can only wonder how
this money is being spent.
Like most African countries Namibia is hopelessly divided among many
tribes. One tribe, the Ovambo, does account for about 50% of the
population, however. The most common language appears to be Afrikaans.
It is spoken by 60% of the people. More than three times as many
people are infected with aids as there are speakers of the country's
official language -- English.
It would appear that independence from South Africa has meant little
to the people of Namibia , and that Namibia is in serious need of a
national identity around which the entire nation can rally.
Until interest is demonstrated by other list members I will withhold
further comment.
Sincerely,
HelveticaR. A. Stegemann (Hamo)
EARTH's Manager and HKLNA-Project Director
EARTH - East Asian Research and Translation in Hong Kong
http://homepage.mac.com/moogoonghwa/earth/
Tel/Fax: 852 2630 0349
On 20 Mar 2005, at 00:58, Harold F. Schiffman wrote:
http://www.namibian.com.na/2005/March/columns/059F1AAB49.html
The Free Press Of Namibia
Friday, March 18, 2005 -
Achievements, Shortcomings In The Namibian Education Sector
KASHINDI AUSIKU EDUCATION is sometimes described as 'the key to
unlocking
human potential and creating opportunity'. With this in mind, it is
imperative to look at what we have achieved in this field in the last
15
years of our political Independence. The Government deserves credit for
making education a top priority in terms of budget allocations for the
last 15 years.
This is despite the fact that such huge spending did not yield the
envisaged returns. One of the Government's key achievements in
education
is the promulgation of the Education Act of 2001 (Act No 16 of 2001).
The
Act provides for the provision of accessible, equitable, qualitative
and
democratic national education service and other things.
Government must also be applauded for building new schools. Hundreds of
pupils have gained access to formal education, while those who can't
find
space have been able to continue their studies through Namcol. The
establishment of the Education Management and Information System
(EMIS) is
also a positive step as statistics are very crucial and must be
documented.
Furthermore through some education structures such as School Boards,
SRCs,
Curriculum Committees/Panels, citizens have been accorded the
opportunity
to participate democratically in the country's education process. The
quality of participation in these bodies varies from region to region
and
from school to school. However, there are still bodies that require
significant support as they have no capacity to make significant
contribution in education.
SYMPTOMS OF FAILURES It is sad that despite the huge allocation of
funds
to education Namibia has low levels of functional literacy and high
drop
outs. In addition the education and training offered has failed to
prepare
a large number of youths to meet the skills needed in the labour
market.
The English language proficiency is another issue that has not improved
much particularly in the rural schools. This contributes much to the
high
failure rate and hence fewer learners make it to institutions of higher
learning. The Namibian Constitution is vague on the language policy and
surprisingly the Education Act of 2001 is also silent on the policy.
FAILING SCHOOLS There are a number of schools that can be classified as
'failing schools' as they have not improved much since Independence.
Schools that used to produce good results prior to Independence
continue
to do so while a large percentage of those which used to produce poor
results have not changed at all. In most cases poor administration,
serious lack of initiatives and commitment from the personnel in charge
are a recipe of poor performance at the 'failing schools'.
The Government could have introduced performance contracts for all
managers in education in order to make people accountable and thereby
improve performance at all levels of education. Evolution of the
Education
ministries since independence Since 1990 the education ministries have
changed names and perhaps in the process have lost focus.
The major change was the formation of the ministries of Basic Education
and Higher Education in 1995. Despite all these changes the question
remains- What did the nation benefit from this evolution? One could
comfortably say very little indeed as no significant improvements on
quality education have been achieved.
The end result was a huge bill to pay for salaries and perks and the
creation of unnecessary bureaucracy. As we reflect on our achievements
and
failure maybe it would be in the best interest of the country to merge
the
two ministries again and save money.
Pre-primary education is also the foundation of basic education and it
was
an error of judgement by those who made a decision to leave it in the
hands of the community. It would be the right move to return it to
formal
education in order to address the high failure rate at secondary level.
Material on this site copyright The Free Press Of Namibia (Pty) Ltd
PO Box 20783 - Windhoek - 42 John Meinert Street
Tel: +264 (61) 279600 - Fax: +264 (61) 279602