WE note with great interest the upcoming national conference on education (‘Conference on education in June’, The Namibian, 29 April).
However, it is hard not to be cynical about this initiative and think about it as yet another time-consuming and resource-wasting talk-shop. The Swapo regime wants to be seen to be doing something about the education crisis in the country. But, surely, it should have already delivered on the education promise after 20 years of political independence. What else could possibly come out of this conference that we do not know already? It is simply disingenuous to argue that education could improve our quality of life when it is not the right vehicle to overcome social inequality with. Why waste so many resources on yet another conference?Improving on quality of life will most certainly not happen through education, but only through economic democracy in the country. The education system is not the panacea for overcoming social inequality. At some point, the Swapo regime should admit that the primary issue is the unjust socio-economic system of the country. The Minister of Education recently admitted in the National Assembly that two-thirds of Namibian children are hungry in school! So, why do we need another conference when we know what the basic issues are? Perhaps the funds for the education conference could rather be used on feeding schemes for the other 200 000 children who do not receive it at the moment.The Swapo regime has bought into the neo-liberal logic of the World Bank with regard to education as well. This is a crucial issue, as far as the education crisis is concerned. An interesting example of this framework is in terms of what it means for the higher education sector. That imperialist institution is on record stating that Africa does not need universities. They want us to be intellectually dependent on the global north. This is already manifested in the fact that textbooks and academic journals used in our universities usually come from there. The rulers of the world understand that universities can be crucial sites of ideological struggle. So, according to them, no research on social justice or any progressive topics should be encouraged at universities in the global south. Instead, all this talk about entrepreneurship and business management are already coming out of our ears! We are all supposed to be obsessed with profit and material things. Only the corporate agenda is supposed to feature when it comes to academic production. There is no real space for critical thinking, philosophical reflection or artistic expression at the universities of the global south.In colourful language, Alfredo Hengari characterised the University of Namibia as ‘caught up in a party-political provincialism with a restrictive medieval feudal mentality.’ The point is that critical intellectuals are not welcome at Unam. The ones that were there have been quietly pushed out. And the remaining ones will not last long in that authoritarian culture. Perhaps the Ministry of Education can rather address this pertinent issue? Whatever happened to freedom of expression and conscience? This is clearly not possible with the autocratic rule of the Swapo regime.The Namibian people must learn not to depend on the Swapo regime in solving the educational crisis. We should rather organise a mass literacy campaign as a project of the social movements in the country. The people must protest for proper libraries and laboratories to be constructed in our schools all over the country. Let us organise our youth to form reading groups and debating societies outside schools. We must ensure that the Namibian youth will get, following the ideas of Paolo Freire, an education for critical consciousness.KW ShimwafeniWindhoek
