Andrew Clegg
18 April 2008
column
Windhoek — Now the dust is beginning to settle after the annual grade 10 and 12 results turmoil it is probably a good time to take a rather longer and cooler look at how the educational system is doing and where it should be going.
But first, a little more on the results.
Contrary to the impression we have all gathered they are probably the best ever, both at grade 10 and at grade 12. Certainly the grade 10 and 12 results for the economically key subjects of maths and science continue the steady improvement we have seen since Independence. And since the ministry seems to show no signs of doing so I would like to congratulate all those dedicated teachers out there who have made it so.
(Pity they don't pay you any more than your colleagues who only stir when their cheque comes in but that's life; ETSIP is supposed to do something about that but don't hold your breath). But all is not quite so rosy; consider these numbers. Every year about 65 000 new children start school. Of these 12 000 drop out before the end of primary school. We dont know why; we can only speculate. But one reason for dropping out is always more significant than others; they dont like it there.
They don't like the feeling of being failures. Do any of us? By the beginning of grade 10, another 7 000 have been lost. So 30% of all learners don't even complete even basic education. Then, as we know, another 17 000 don't enter grade 11. We are now down to 28 000 from the 65 000. Not many drop out of senior secondary school. At the end of grade 12 the proportion of these getting good grades is between 10 and 20%; maybe 4000 or so out of the original 65 000, well under 10%. In other countries this is 40% or more. So what is wrong? The answer is that nothing is wrong.
The system is performing exactly to specification. It was designed very carefully to encourage the elite to float to the top, to reward them and nourish them, and to exclude, in a whole variety of ways, all the others. None of the revisions it has undergone since colonial times have fundamentally changed the design. What they have done is to lubricate the system to make it more efficient at sorting the wheat from the chaff and to improve the quality of the best wheat.
ETSIP continues this noble tradition. It will no longer do. Vision 2030 demands much more from the system. Over the last 40 years or so most other countries have faced this. Most, particularly Europe and the East, have responded by adding a large new parallel system to cater specifically for the 80% our system rejects. Most, indeed, have added two such tracks, one technically oriented catering for around 40% and a second 'life-oriented' provide useful life skills for the other 40% or so who will leave education when they leave school.
North America, Australia and Nordic Europe have opted for a less divisive but much more complex system that caters for all under one roof and a unified curriculum structure. It is much more demanding on teachers, on administrators, on examiners and requires rather larger schools than we are used to here. But it is ultimately probably fairer. Whatever system they have chosen, the change in all these countries has been overwhelming; by far the largest change in their educational histories.
Namibia is yet to start. Vision 2030 is now upon the education ministry. The children who will emerge from the system then are now being born so we have just 5 years to plan an educational revolution. For Ministers Mbumba and Njoze-Ojo, Vision 2030 is now Realty 2030 and there is quite a bit of urgent and serious thinking to be done at the political level and no sign yet that it is happening.
Business as usual is no longer an option. Countries who have been through this have very different curricula, examination systems, teaching philosophies, educational structures, teacher training programmes, teacher support programmes and even textbooks, from ours. Education here went through a good shake-up 15 years ago followed by a needed period of calm and consolidation. A new shake-up is now urgently required which will make the post-Independence changes seem trivial. The Vision 2030 goals represent a carefully thought through description of Namibia's aspirations about its future economic place in the world.
They depend vitally, to underpin them, on a vibrant and flexible education system that is appropriate for all citizens, not just the fortunate few. The choice is simple and stark; if the country does not to want to degenerate into simply a hole in the ground out of which China and the rest scoop their uranium and diamonds, a clear educational reform vision must be in front of us to vote on by no later than the next election.
If it is not, Vision 2030 will become Vision 2050.
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