Good Step Need Improvement
I WANT to congratulate the University of Namibia for producing its first graduates at the engineering faculty that was established 2009 in Ongwediva.
We expect the number of students to increase since most of the engineering departments will start to operate in earnest from next year. The faculty, annually, targets 240 students for pre-engineering and expects to admit all the 240 pre-engineering students to year one of engineering studies. Out of 240 students only 45-70 however make it to year one, the rest fail.
Half of the students who enroll for pre-engineering come from the northern parts of Namibia, specifically from Gabriel Taapopi Secondary School, Mweshipandeka Secondary School, Negumbo Secondary School and Oshigambo Secondary School. They fail pre-engineering studies especially analytic geometry, matrices and complex numbers modules.
Students do not fail because they cannot perform academically, but they fail because they hardly adapt to Windhoek’s way of life. Most of the students come from poor families, so they stay in informal settlements. How can a pre-engineering student live in Havanna or Hakahana and expect to pass well? This question is answered by admitting all medical students in hostel and all Ongwediva engineering students in the Hifikepunye Pohamba campus’ hostel. The issue of accommodation has affected most of the students.
If Unam can offer a degree in education at the main campus, Khomasdal campus, Hifikepunye campus and Katima Mulilo campus, then the university can also offer pre-engineering at the Ongwediva engineering campus. It is inappropriate to have pre-engineering at Windhoek while the engineering training is done at Ongwediva; this was supposed to be corrected within the past four years.
Pre-engineering can be offered at the main campus and at Ongwediva campus.
No cost will be involved since the university can use its existing engineering lecturers to lecture pre-engineering in Ongwediva. The mathematics module (analytic geometry and pre-calculus) can be taught by the engineering mathematics lecture. The same goes for physics I and II, chemistry 1A and 1B, statistics introduction and engineering fundamentals which are already offered at the Ongwediva engineering campus.
The same classes and labs at Ongwediva can be used by the pre-engineering students. The university must act up on this and put us, the future Namibian engineers, in the same environment at least by next year.
Elias Eliakim N,
Windhoek