Windhoek — He steadfastly believes the Namibian nation is inhabited by talented sons and daughters, who need nothing else but advice, positive intervention and methodology to reach the top in the country's education system.

This is the view of the Deputy Minister of Education, Dr David Namwandi, who on Monday officially opened the 5th biannual National Conference on Education in the capital.

Some 400 senior personnel of the education ministry from around the country are attending the four-day conference.

"The goal of education is to empower learners to realise their full potential as individuals who can contribute to development and be able to live a dignified life.

Thus, the creation of human capital must take centre stage in education. In the world of today the success of any education system is measured by its end products," Namwandi said.

If good products are to be yielded, learners must be able to read, write and calculate with ease.

"If this is not happening surely there is a need to re-look and examine ourselves and see how best we can remedy the situation. In my opinion, education is not just units of production to service the needs of business and governments, it should service a large purpose in life," the learned man said.

He urged the government's ETSIP programme to do more in the areas of quality, access, effectiveness and efficiency, as well as delivery capacity, management and accountability.

"In access it is impressive to note that over the past five years we have moved from 96% to a 98% net enrolment of learners in our schools. This trend is, however, neutralised by: the dropout rate across all grades, being 10% and below, the high repetition in Grade 5 and the slight progression in grades 10 and 11. Taking this into account it is my appeal that there is urgency for joining all forces to achieve set targets," he said.

According to Namwandi, the need for improved quality education at all levels is greater than ever before.

"There is a need for a course of action and or turnaround strategy in respect of repetition and the dropout rate, especially at primary level. Let this conference emphasise greatly on equity and efficiency. Equally significant it is paramount for the conference to interrogate quality of delivery in our schools," he emphasised.

He personally believes no person, no country and no continent can claim to have the monopoly of intelligence.

"Namibia cannot remain at the bottom of the ladder in education, regionally speaking. This is a brave nation. It defeated the most fearful system of apartheid and shall certainly remove all hurdles in our education system. Yes, it shall, yes, we can and we shall do it well," he said inspiringly.

Namwandi alluded to Singapore's success in education.

"Their achievements were only possible because they aligned themselves with the 'right forces', namely, education. They reformed their education system to suit their national agenda. If they did it, why can't we?

"I always maintain Namibia will one day become a nation of great thinkers and achievers, that is my prophecy and it will come to pass," he predicted.

He is also of the opinion that the process of getting it right in education requires constant interactions with everyone involved in education.

"Teachers have to maintain a dialogue to set targets, follow up, adjust interventions, share, reflect and continue to do just that. It should be a national effort for all of us to create more marketable and relevant Namibian brands, including brands in education with a view to create impact in the world. In that way we will for sure earn respect.

"It is a must we benchmark our education system and its products against the world's best," he urged.

To succeed it is crucial that Namibians utilise imaginative ideas to produce innovative products.

"Education meant to prepare our people merely to gain employment is absurd. We must ignite the minds of our people to think analytically and critically at all times. We must equip our citizens with knowledge and skills to bring about innovation as opposed to a turnkey syndrome," he concluded.