Education programme on track, but …

NAMIBIA’S ambitious N$4,8 billion Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (Etsip) is on track, but progress might be hampered as “poverty becomes more and more severe for the most disadvantaged members of society”, a top education official said yesterday.

“Although positive impacts of the first five-year phase of the 15-year project may only be seen in the medium and long term, much more determined efforts are needed to bring about quicker improvements in the quality of examination results pupils are to achieve,” said Justin Ellis, Etsip Programme Manager in the Education Ministry. Speaking at an Etsip review conference, Ellis said while political and public understanding of the goals and intentions of Etsip had grown and funds were flowing from development partners – albeit slowly – decisions on proposals to improve the pupil-teacher ratio and introduce a quota system to place school children at schools for Grade 11 had to be taken soon.”Last year, 46 per cent of all Grade 10 pupils would not be admitted to Grade 11 due to their poor performance and Government rolled out a N$340 million programme this year to accommodate Grade 10 repeaters and to accommodate more pupils next year in Grade 11,” Ellis told the conference.”It is not yet clear how many extra places will be made available for Grade 11 in 2009 and at the moment we don’t know how many children are in Grade 11 this year, because the annual audit usually done on the 15th day of school could not be carried out due to late admissions.We did such an audit in August and then we will have the latest figures available.”According to him, work had begun on a quota system for admission to Grade 11 in order to “ensure equitable access for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and regions”.STEPS TO THE FUTURE Ellis noted that Cabinet recently approved his Ministry’s submission to decentralise budgetary allocation for education to regions according to the number of schoolgoing children per region.Private schools receiving Government subsidies will in future have to give full scholarships to 10 per cent of their total enrolment of pupils and they must be from a disadvantaged background.These two resolutions will be implemented from April 2009.Ellis outlined that the Ministry would have six Vision Schools built across the country.These schools are to provide high quality secondary education to selected school children from disadvantaged backgrounds “to break the cycle of poverty.”Germany has indicated that it might fund the construction of one such school.A new national school curriculum will be implemented by January 2010.According to the Etsip review report given to conference participants, standards for the teaching profession in general had been accepted and if all went well, all existing teacher education colleges would soon fall under the University of Namibia (Unam).A system of licensing teachers is on the cards, but an agreement with teachers’ unions still has to be reached.The Education Ministry approached to Office of the Prime Minister to approve an incentive system to attract good teachers to schools in rural areas and keep them there.Another change the Ministry wants to bring about under Etsip is to improve the pupil-teacher ratio, but this might be difficult to achieve at junior secondary level (Grade 8-10).”For this to happen one would have to change the curriculum by reducing the subjects pupils have to write exams for from the current nine to six.”Ellis reported success in reintroducing pre-primary education at State schools, which Government in a drastic step abolished shortly after Independence.One hundred disadvantaged schools started with pre-primary programmes this year and 130 primary schools embarked on family literacy programmes.In another step to make higher education more accessible, the Ministry is preparing a draft policy to establish an Open University.This will provide distance studying for diplomas and degrees.Education Minister Nangolo Mbumba, who opened the three-day conference, said more textbooks would be available at schools, while the performance of each State school would be measured.”We have set standards and targets for all our schools and teachers, and will find more and more ways to hold ourselves accountable,” Mbumba said.Total funding for Etsip until 2020 is estimated at US$60,4 million (N$4,8 billion) and Government obtained a loan from the World Bank for some of the funding and support from development partners.Namibia’s local business sector also pledged several million Namibia dollars.About N$2,4 billion is required for the first five years of Etsip until 2011, but Phase 1 has now been extended to 2013 to better include it in Government’s national development plans.The US government will provide US$144 million or N$1,1 billion to Etsip through the Millennium Challenge Account Compact.Speaking at an Etsip review conference, Ellis said while political and public understanding of the goals and intentions of Etsip had grown and funds were flowing from development partners – albeit slowly – decisions on proposals to improve the pupil-teacher ratio and introduce a quota system to place school children at schools for Grade 11 had to be taken soon.”Last year, 46 per cent of all Grade 10 pupils would not be admitted to Grade 11 due to their poor performance and Government rolled out a N$340 million programme this year to accommodate Grade 10 repeaters and to accommodate more pupils next year in Grade 11,” Ellis told the conference.”It is not yet clear how many extra places will be made available for Grade 11 in 2009 and at the moment we don’t know how many children are in Grade 11 this year, because the annual audit usually done on the 15th day of school could not be carried out due to late admissions.We did such an audit in August and then we will have the latest figures available.”According to him, work had begun on a quota system for admission to Grade 11 in order to “ensure equitable access for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and regions”. STEPS TO THE FUTURE Ellis noted that Cabinet recently approved his Ministry’s submission to decentralise budgetary allocation for education to regions according to the number of schoolgoing children per region.Private schools receiving Government subsidies will in future have to give full scholarships to 10 per cent of their total enrolment of pupils and they must be from a disadvantaged background.These two resolutions will be implemented from April 2009.Ellis outlined that the Ministry would have six Vision Schools built across the country.These schools are to provide high quality secondary education to selected school children from disadvantaged backgrounds “to break the cycle of poverty.”Germany has indicated that it might fund the construction of one such school.A new national school curriculum will be implemented by January 2010.According to the Etsip review report given to conference participants, standards for the teaching profession in general had been accepted and if all went well, all existing teacher education colleges would soon fall under the University of Namibia (Unam).A system of licensing teachers is on the cards, but an agreement with teachers’ unions still has to be reached.The Education Ministry approached to Office of the Prime Minister to approve an incentive system to attract good teachers to schools in rural areas and keep them there.Another change the Ministry wants to bring about under Etsip is to improve the pupil-teacher ratio, but this might be difficult to achieve at junior secondary level (Grade 8-10).”For this to happen one would have to change the curriculum by reducing the subjects pupils have to write exams for from the current nine to six.”Ellis reported success in reintroducing pre-primary education at State schools, which Government in a drastic step abolished shortly after Independence.One hundred disadvantaged schools started with pre-primary programmes this year and 130 primary schools embarked on family literacy programmes.In another step to make higher education more accessible, the Ministry is preparing a
draft policy to establish an Open University.This will provide distance studying for diplomas and degrees.Education Minister Nangolo Mbumba, who opened the three-day conference, said more textbooks would be available at schools, while the performance of each State school would be measured.”We have set standards and targets for all our schools and teachers, and will find more and more ways to hold ourselves accountable,” Mbumba said.Total funding for Etsip until 2020 is estimated at US$60,4 million (N$4,8 billion) and Government obtained a loan from the World Bank for some of the funding and support from development partners.Namibia’s local business sector also pledged several million Namibia dollars.About N$2,4 billion is required for the first five years of Etsip until 2011, but Phase 1 has now been extended to 2013 to better include it in Government’s national development plans.The US government will provide US$144 million or N$1,1 billion to Etsip through the Millennium Challenge Account Compact.