Education - The Dilemma our children face
THE OLD sages said: "Longa aamwoye manga unomuenjo inothegerera yeye yalongwe kaathithi." It simply means: "Teach the young ones what they have to know now when there is still time. Don't wait for the ancestors to come back to do it for you, because they will never return."
A repeat performance of last year's and the previous year's
hopeless Grade 10 results, will certainly come to haunt us for many
years to come.
Fourteen years down the line, the education authorities do not
seem to be capable as yet, to, as the Afrikaners say, "die ding
onder die knie te kry," meaning "to really get to grips with the
new system".
Over 15 000 Grade 10 children have failed the 2003
examinations.
One can just imagine what is taking place in the homes of these
unfortunate children.
Sadness, recriminations, apportioning blame, name calling,
arguments and perhaps even threats in certain homes.
Who takes the blame for this recurring disaster that distracts
the nation from focussing on other more pressing issues? Every
year, school children are left with the bitter taste of gall come
Christmas.
And their numbers are soaring year in and year out.
The Basic Education Ministry brushes it off with, "This year's
results show a marked improvement"....etc, etc, etc,. or words to
that effect.
I remember a period in the past when Standard 6 (now Gr.8) was
the cut-off point for children facing the future - not Standard 8
(Gr.10) as it is today.
The Std. VI examination of yesteryear was external with very
high standards demanded of children who made it to this class.
Some of the hard-working teachers of the sixties and seventies
who are still alive man important positions in the Ministries of
education in Namibia.
They will remember that a Standard 6 teacher never enjoyed the
easy life of today, but slept with the proverbial "one eye".
Parents expected results at the end of each year and there was
no excuse when children failed.
Competition was rife between the various schools.
In those days, books were free, and children were supplied with
everything from ballpoints to mathematical sets - teachers merely
ordered what they needed.
Education was completely free even under colonial rule.
We do not want to go into the politics of the period of
course.
Today, Grade 10 does not seem to be taken as a serious external
examination by either our teachers or their pupils.
At least that is the impression every education-loving parent
gets.
Children just fail, and by the thousands, and then go home to
try it by correspondence through NAMCOL.
For heaven's sake! Who thinks that a student, who fails an
examination while getting it daily straight from the horse's mouth
in the classroom, can pass by correspondence? Something is
definitely wrong here.
How many children have failed Grade 10 during the last five
years - forty, fifty, sixty, seventy thousand? Education is a
culture sought by everyone desirous of a life of happiness, decency
and prosperity.
Lack of it spells disaster, poverty and ignorance, a life of
crime, violence and death and imprisonment.
Unfortunately, we cannot say that what we see happening in our
schools today is what we have always hoped for.
To the contrary, parents and children are now up in arms because
of what they see as a total about-turn in education, a reversal of
trends.
And, as is usually the case in such situations, it is difficult
to point a finger at the culprit.
Who is to blame for this disaster? Minister John Mutorwa is
known to be a hard-working man.
He is a teacher by profession himself and is ever on the move
across the country to see things for himself.
But as things stand for the Grade 10's, the Minister does not
seem to be achieving much.
To the contrary, children keep on failing at an alarming rate
each year.
Teachers stick to their guns that they are doing a good job and
the authorities in Windhoek are satisfied that a good job is being
done, or are they? There should be inspectors going out to keep
teachers on their toes at all times, and see to it that they
deserve their salaries.
Teachers must be made aware of the fact that teachers in
neighbouring African countries do not earn what teachers earn
here.
Well, if these teachers with high salaries are not regularly
supervised and checked, then surely we have no hope in hell that
education in Namibia will ever be better than the Cape Education
System which was rejected at Independence.
Poor performance in Education can be ascribed to the
following:
LACK OF PRODUCTIVITY ON THE PART OF TEACHERS:
1. Teachers who do not take their work seriously, and spend
their time running their own businesses.
2. Teachers who lack classroom skills because they are either
poorly trained, or simply unqualified.
3. Teachers who see the profession simply as a job, a way to
earn a salary.
4. The medium of instruction: Fourteen years after independence,
most teachers cannot yet think in English.
Afrikaans is still strongly in their veins.
Who can blame them anyway? Some of our teachers have Afrikaans
as their home language.
5. Automatic promotions: these do not motivate children to
develop a spirit of competition in school.
The present system guarantees every child that at the end of the
day, he/she will pass and go to a higher grade - hard work or
not.
It's all a question of standards.
If the Ministry of Basic Education does not set standards in
education, then they must not talk about the high number of
children admitted to school after Independence.
High standards in education can only deliver high quality
people.
6. The over-hasty introduction of a new education system by
politicians, without first carefully working out strategies and
time frames for implementation to ensure success.
It is not the system that reforms, but the people who must
implement it through hard work and self-sacrifice.
7. The so-called colonial syndrome: To undo this decades-old
conditioning, does not require emotional political decisions taken
haphazardly, but a painstaking process of at least twenty-five
years (or a whole generation).
During such a process, new schools are built, students are sent
for training outside the country.
8. Parents/teachers Committees, School Committees, School
Boards: If these bodies are just created without a serious aim in
mind, they will achieve nothing.
If their powers, functions, responsibilities and a whole range
of interests are not even known to those who serve on them, then we
are moving deeper into a quagmire of ignorance.
THE CHILD IS NO LONGER THE CENTRE OF EDUCATION:
Instead it is the teacher whose rights must be protected at all
costs.
Some teachers enjoy themselves and have a good time at the
expense of the children.
1. Lack of motivation of children: Drugs, liquor, sex and discos
are the results of very poor motivation on the part of young
children.
2. As most black parents never had the opportunity to go to
school, it is very difficult for them to focus on the key elements
that should be addressed in order to motivate their kids to greater
heights.
3. Many teachers do not read much and so cannot always give
their learners more than just the humdrum presentation of lessons,
following textbooks slavishly and applying boring teaching
methods.
A good teacher does not regard children as mere cups of tea that
must be filled.
LACK OF OPPORTUNITIES:
Are all the children in our schools being told by their teachers
what beautiful opportunities await them outside there once they
have completed their education? I think not:
1. In many instances children are made to hate school and take
to the streets.
If little children see what is happening in some high schools
and universities, where the main purpose of some students is merely
to have fun, then small children will lose interest in
learning.
2. To compound this problem, the school curriculum does not make
provision for practical subjects such as woodwork, metal work,
etc.
This could stand the weaker students in good stead when they
look for work after failing Grade 10.
HEAVY BACKLOG OF CLASSROOM ACCOMMODATION:
1. Every year there are new arrivals on the social scene - the
Grade Ones.
It is not an exaggeration to state that new Primary Schools are
required every year.
At the rate of += 30 000 new children coming into the system
yearly, and a Primary School holding about six hundred children, we
are talking about at least 50 schools needed.
This number will of course be reduced, as classrooms will be
vacated by children promoted to other Grades, or leaving
school.
2. And new Primary Schools call for new Secondary Schools.
A hundred million N$ can build thirty-three Primary Schools or
twenty Secondary Schools.
3. It is quite clear that the current crop of teachers in our
schools includes a high percentage of teachers who are not capable
of teaching young children.
This needs a training/retraining programme.
PARENTS ALSO NEED RE-EDUCATION:
The more they are called on to participate in school activities
the better.
School Committees must be educated to know their
responsibilities.
Years ago, we built mud and grass bush schools in the Caprivi
Region with parents who were illiterate but more than motivated to
send their children to school.
Some of the children of that time are employed in the various
ministries of the Namibian Government right now.
UNIVERSITY EDUCATION:
Even at the height of the apartheid era, never did we in South
West Africa (Namibia today) hear the apartheid Government in
Pretoria give an order that students from this country were not
allowed in South Africa.
The borders were open and students went down freely to
universities from Cape Town to the University of the North, to
study.
The lucky ones went down on free bursaries and scholarships.
Children entering the world of knowledge need a much broader
spectrum, wider horizons and sky-high opportunities to develop.
While it is a good idea to have a university in Namibia,
universities are available across the border.
Namibia should instead strive to strengthen its Primary and
Secondary sectors.
We have a university on top of the pyramid with weak links to
the base.
That is why high officials in Government send their children
across the border to study in South Africa.
It is the most advanced country in Sub-Saharan Africa.
To be fair to Namibian children who were for decades ruled from
Pretoria, the government of President Mbeki should seriously
consider having Namibian students second on the priority list of
admissions after the children of South Africa, for at least
twenty-five years.
OUTSIDE TALENT:
I propose a serious recruitment drive for qualified personnel in
SADC countries.
The governments of the SADC countries know why Namibia has so
many problems in education, and they should be able to help.
There are thousands of qualified teachers in South Africa,
Zimbabwe, Botswana and Lesotho.
The MBEC should recruit at least three to five thousand of these
teachers and contract them for at least five years.
During their term of contract, our best Grade XII students
should be selected and sent to training institutions in SADC
countries for a four-year teachers training programme.
The clock is ticking - waiting for us to make our hay while the
sun still shines.
Procrastinating will help us reap the fruits of failure as
elsewhere in the world in general, and Africa in particular viz.,
demonstrations, toyi-toying, violence, boycotts and all the unholy
occupations of an unemployed citizenry.
Andrew Matjila
Windhoek
Fourteen years down the line, the education authorities do not seem
to be capable as yet, to, as the Afrikaners say, "die ding onder
die knie te kry," meaning "to really get to grips with the new
system".Over 15 000 Grade 10 children have failed the 2003
examinations.One can just imagine what is taking place in the homes
of these unfortunate children.Sadness, recriminations, apportioning
blame, name calling, arguments and perhaps even threats in certain
homes.Who takes the blame for this recurring disaster that
distracts the nation from focussing on other more pressing issues?
Every year, school children are left with the bitter taste of gall
come Christmas.And their numbers are soaring year in and year
out.The Basic Education Ministry brushes it off with, "This year's
results show a marked improvement"....etc, etc, etc,. or words to
that effect.I remember a period in the past when Standard 6 (now
Gr.8) was the cut-off point for children facing the future - not
Standard 8 (Gr.10) as it is today.The Std. VI examination of
yesteryear was external with very high standards demanded of
children who made it to this class.Some of the hard-working
teachers of the sixties and seventies who are still alive man
important positions in the Ministries of education in Namibia.They
will remember that a Standard 6 teacher never enjoyed the easy life
of today, but slept with the proverbial "one eye".Parents expected
results at the end of each year and there was no excuse when
children failed.Competition was rife between the various schools.In
those days, books were free, and children were supplied with
everything from ballpoints to mathematical sets - teachers merely
ordered what they needed.Education was completely free even under
colonial rule.We do not want to go into the politics of the period
of course.Today, Grade 10 does not seem to be taken as a serious
external examination by either our teachers or their pupils.At
least that is the impression every education-loving parent
gets.Children just fail, and by the thousands, and then go home to
try it by correspondence through NAMCOL.For heaven's sake! Who
thinks that a student, who fails an examination while getting it
daily straight from the horse's mouth in the classroom, can pass by
correspondence? Something is definitely wrong here.How many
children have failed Grade 10 during the last five years - forty,
fifty, sixty, seventy thousand? Education is a culture sought by
everyone desirous of a life of happiness, decency and
prosperity.Lack of it spells disaster, poverty and ignorance, a
life of crime, violence and death and imprisonment.Unfortunately,
we cannot say that what we see happening in our schools today is
what we have always hoped for.To the contrary, parents and children
are now up in arms because of what they see as a total about-turn
in education, a reversal of trends.And, as is usually the case in
such situations, it is difficult to point a finger at the
culprit.Who is to blame for this disaster? Minister John Mutorwa is
known to be a hard-working man.He is a teacher by profession
himself and is ever on the move across the country to see things
for himself.But as things stand for the Grade 10's, the Minister
does not seem to be achieving much.To the contrary, children keep
on failing at an alarming rate each year.Teachers stick to their
guns that they are doing a good job and the authorities in Windhoek
are satisfied that a good job is being done, or are they? There
should be inspectors going out to keep teachers on their toes at
all times, and see to it that they deserve their salaries.Teachers
must be made aware of the fact that teachers in neighbouring
African countries do not earn what teachers earn here.Well, if
these teachers with high salaries are not regularly supervised and
checked, then surely we have no hope in hell that education in
Namibia will ever be better than the Cape Education System which
was rejected at Independence.Poor performance in Education can be
ascribed to the following:LACK OF PRODUCTIVITY ON THE PART OF
TEACHERS:1. Teachers who do not take their work seriously, and
spend their time running their own businesses.2. Teachers who lack
classroom skills because they are either poorly trained, or simply
unqualified.3. Teachers who see the profession simply as a job, a
way to earn a salary.4. The medium of instruction: Fourteen years
after independence, most teachers cannot yet think in
English.Afrikaans is still strongly in their veins.Who can blame
them anyway? Some of our teachers have Afrikaans as their home
language.5. Automatic promotions: these do not motivate children to
develop a spirit of competition in school.The present system
guarantees every child that at the end of the day, he/she will pass
and go to a higher grade - hard work or not.It's all a question of
standards.If the Ministry of Basic Education does not set standards
in education, then they must not talk about the high number of
children admitted to school after Independence.High standards in
education can only deliver high quality people.6. The over-hasty
introduction of a new education system by politicians, without
first carefully working out strategies and time frames for
implementation to ensure success.It is not the system that reforms,
but the people who must implement it through hard work and
self-sacrifice.7. The so-called colonial syndrome: To undo this
decades-old conditioning, does not require emotional political
decisions taken haphazardly, but a painstaking process of at least
twenty-five years (or a whole generation).During such a process,
new schools are built, students are sent for training outside the
country.8. Parents/teachers Committees, School Committees, School
Boards: If these bodies are just created without a serious aim in
mind, they will achieve nothing.If their powers, functions,
responsibilities and a whole range of interests are not even known
to those who serve on them, then we are moving deeper into a
quagmire of ignorance.THE CHILD IS NO LONGER THE CENTRE OF
EDUCATION:Instead it is the teacher whose rights must be protected
at all costs.Some teachers enjoy themselves and have a good time at
the expense of the children.1. Lack of motivation of children:
Drugs, liquor, sex and discos are the results of very poor
motivation on the part of young children.2. As most black parents
never had the opportunity to go to school, it is very difficult for
them to focus on the key elements that should be addressed in order
to motivate their kids to greater heights.3. Many teachers do not
read much and so cannot always give their learners more than just
the humdrum presentation of lessons, following textbooks slavishly
and applying boring teaching methods.A good teacher does not regard
children as mere cups of tea that must be filled.LACK OF
OPPORTUNITIES:Are all the children in our schools being told by
their teachers what beautiful opportunities await them outside
there once they have completed their education? I think not:1. In
many instances children are made to hate school and take to the
streets.If little children see what is happening in some high
schools and universities, where the main purpose of some students
is merely to have fun, then small children will lose interest in
learning.2. To compound this problem, the school curriculum does
not make provision for practical subjects such as woodwork, metal
work, etc.This could stand the weaker students in good stead when
they look for work after failing Grade 10.HEAVY BACKLOG OF
CLASSROOM ACCOMMODATION:1. Every year there are new arrivals on the
social scene - the Grade Ones.It is not an exaggeration to state
that new Primary Schools are required every year.At the rate of +=
30 000 new children coming into the system yearly, and a Primary
School holding about six hundred children, we are talking about at
least 50 schools needed.This number will of course be reduced, as
classrooms will be vacated by children promoted to other Grades, or
leaving school.2. And new Primary Schools call for new Secondary
Schools.A hundred million N$ can build thirty-three Primary Schools
or twenty Secondary Schools.3. It is quite clear that the current
crop of teachers in our schools includes a high percentage of
teachers who are not capable of teaching young children.This needs
a training/retraining programme.PARENTS ALSO NEED RE-EDUCATION:The
more they are called on to participate in school activities the
better.School Committees must be educated to know their
responsibilities.Years ago, we built mud and grass bush schools in
the Caprivi Region with parents who were illiterate but more than
motivated to send their children to school.Some of the children of
that time are employed in the various ministries of the Namibian
Government right now.UNIVERSITY EDUCATION:Even at the height of the
apartheid era, never did we in South West Africa (Namibia today)
hear the apartheid Government in Pretoria give an order that
students from this country were not allowed in South Africa.The
borders were open and students went down freely to universities
from Cape Town to the University of the North, to study.The lucky
ones went down on free bursaries and scholarships.Children entering
the world of knowledge need a much broader spectrum, wider horizons
and sky-high opportunities to develop.While it is a good idea to
have a university in Namibia, universities are available across the
border.Namibia should instead strive to strengthen its Primary and
Secondary sectors.We have a university on top of the pyramid with
weak links to the base.That is why high officials in Government
send their children across the border to study in South Africa.It
is the most advanced country in Sub-Saharan Africa.To be fair to
Namibian children who were for decades ruled from Pretoria, the
government of President Mbeki should seriously consider having
Namibian students second on the priority list of admissions after
the children of South Africa, for at least twenty-five
years.OUTSIDE TALENT:I propose a serious recruitment drive for
qualified personnel in SADC countries.The governments of the SADC
countries know why Namibia has so many problems in education, and
they should be able to help.There are thousands of qualified
teachers in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Lesotho.The MBEC
should recruit at least three to five thousand of these teachers
and contract them for at least five years.During their term of
contract, our best Grade XII students should be selected and sent
to training institutions in SADC countries for a four-year teachers
training programme.The clock is ticking - waiting for us to make
our hay while the sun still shines.Procrastinating will help us
reap the fruits of failure as elsewhere in the world in general,
and Africa in particular viz., demonstrations, toyi-toying,
violence, boycotts and all the unholy occupations of an unemployed
citizenry.Andrew Matjila
Windhoek