Education time bomb ‘ticking’

NAMIBIA’S education system is “a time bomb” ready to explode because an estimated 10 000 young people join the ranks of the unemployed each year, the Namibia National Students’ Organisation said yesterday.

Addressing the media on last year’s Grade 12 results, Nanso Secretary General Neville Andre said the high failure rate has become a “social catastrophe”, as many students are not even employable. Describing the annual rush for classrooms as a “circus”, Andre said education planners had not been serious for the past 16 years.”We believe it is serious corruption when somebody is being paid to carry out a job but at the end of the day that person continuously commits the same fatal errors.Education planners should learn to keep track of population growth and the migration patterns of our population, or else resign peacefully,” he said.The Directorate of National Examinations in the Ministry of Education announced last week that only 2 840 of the 13 850 full-time Grade 12 students qualified for admission to the University of Namibia and Polytechnic of Namibia.Andre said around 10 000 young people will join the rest of the other “morally degenerated on the streets”.”This is a situation that has been perpetually forthcoming since the introduction of the Cambridge education system, this is indeed a time bomb,” he said.He said there had been no response from society to productively accommodate the young people.Andre said they were not impressed by the Ministry’s conclusion that the results showed an improvement.He said many had not mastered English and only 24 per cent scored a D symbol and above.”This shows that the majority of our learners are still not competent enough in mastering English as medium of instruction, which is one of the contributing factors for the under-performance of our learners,” he said.He said the education system “has produced graduates who cannot even properly construct a sentence in English, let alone the spelling of the words”.”Government is not alone on this one; our parents are also guilty of not creating a reading culture in society,” Andre said.For Nanso, Vision 2030 would remain “a pipe dream” in terms of skilled and competent people if the education system was not changed quickly.In the broadside attack, Nanso called on the two teachers’ unions, the Namibia National Teachers’ Union (Nantu) and Teachers’ Union of Namibia (TUN), to reprimand teachers who impregnate girls, provide alcohol to pupils and engage in other immoral activities with pupils.Andre welcomed a recent Cabinet decision to set aside N$10 million for providing more classroom access to students.Describing the annual rush for classrooms as a “circus”, Andre said education planners had not been serious for the past 16 years.”We believe it is serious corruption when somebody is being paid to carry out a job but at the end of the day that person continuously commits the same fatal errors.Education planners should learn to keep track of population growth and the migration patterns of our population, or else resign peacefully,” he said. The Directorate of National Examinations in the Ministry of Education announced last week that only 2 840 of the 13 850 full-time Grade 12 students qualified for admission to the University of Namibia and Polytechnic of Namibia.Andre said around 10 000 young people will join the rest of the other “morally degenerated on the streets”.”This is a situation that has been perpetually forthcoming since the introduction of the Cambridge education system, this is indeed a time bomb,” he said.He said there had been no response from society to productively accommodate the young people.Andre said they were not impressed by the Ministry’s conclusion that the results showed an improvement.He said many had not mastered English and only 24 per cent scored a D symbol and above.”This shows that the majority of our learners are still not competent enough in mastering English as medium of instruction, which is one of the contributing factors for the under-performance of our learners,” he said.He said the education system “has produced graduates who cannot even properly construct a sentence in English, let alone the spelling of the words”.”Government is not alone on this one; our parents are also guilty of not creating a reading culture in society,” Andre said.For Nanso, Vision 2030 would remain “a pipe dream” in terms of skilled and competent people if the education system was not changed quickly.In the broadside attack, Nanso called on the two teachers’ unions, the Namibia National Teachers’ Union (Nantu) and Teachers’ Union of Namibia (TUN), to reprimand teachers who impregnate girls, provide alcohol to pupils and engage in other immoral activities with pupils.Andre welcomed a recent Cabinet decision to set aside N$10 million for providing more classroom access to students.