ACADEMICS in the country have lamented the state of public schools, as the application season for the next academic year opens.
This comes after long queues of parents looking for places for their children were witnessed this week at Delta Primary School in Windhoek. The same scenes were also witnessed from schools in the northern part of the country.
The academics said the parents' high appetite to enrol their children at private schools shows the state of public schools and the struggles experienced through the free education concept.
Former prime minister Nahas Angula, who is a teacher by profession and the country's pioneer education minister upon independence, said there is a perception in Namibia that private schools are better than public schools.
He said this is one of the reasons parents shift their children from government schools to private or semi-private schools.
"As to the choice of private schools, there is a perception that private schools teach better than public schools..."
Angula attributed this to a lack of supply of instructional and learning materials in many of these schools and issues such as overcrowding and distance.
He pointed at the concept of free education as an indirect factor contributing to the moving of children to private schools, saying there is no budget for free education.
"In Namibia, sometimes schools are a site of political manipulation - for a lack of better words. A politician will come up and say free school, free education but there is no budget for free education," said Angula.
He said free education is desirable but he questioned whether the government has the resources for that. Angula further noted that one way to deal with this is for parents to make contributions to their children's education, whether they are in private or public schools.
"I personally believe that, as parents, we should make some contributions towards our children's enrolment. You will then also have some power to challenge whether the school is working hard. If you do not pay anything, the teachers and school management will not listen to you," Angula noted.
Angula said the only way to instil faith in the public education system is through investment.
He admitted that parents have a choice where to send their children and the choice is usually influenced by factors such as high school fees.
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"You choose where and why you want to enroll your child but this freedom of choice is tempered by income. Even if you want to enroll your child in a private school, they sometimes charge exorbitant fees and many parents may not afford that," he said.
Academic and deputy vic chancellor of academic affairs and research at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) Andrew Niikondo said teachers also have to take the blame for parents moving children to private schools.
"You will find a school teacher who is a parent but he or she does not want their child to come to the school where he or she is teaching. Like myself, I am teaching at Nust and my children also study here instead of at other schools," he noted.
Niikondo said he does this so that he can build confidence in people that the public education given in Namibia is 'genuine'.
Private schools are also in competition with each other, he added, saying if private schools are not performing then standards and enrolment rates drop.
Marietjie Katthage, a teacher and owner of the Educational Consultancy Services, said teachers need their self-esteem and confidence to be boosted to do their jobs better.
Some teachers have lost hope and do not focus on things like behaviour, she observed.
At private schools there is more discipline and strictness and this, she said, is one of the reasons children are moving to private schools.
