Etsip project showing results

THE multibillion-dollar Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (Etsip), which started in 2006, is showing some positive results.

The 15-year education plan is costing about N$2,4 billion during the first five years. Statistics made available at a review workshop this week revealed that 1 754 additional children starting Grade 8 this year could be accommodated, and 1 933 additional places were created for Grade 11 children this year. The first Vision School, which will accommodate gifted children from a disadvantaged background, will be constructed at Divundu in the Kavango Region in June this year. A new vocational training centre at Eenhana in north-central Namibia will be operational by July at the latest. A new levy system for companies which do not train interns or apprentices will start in September this year, while the establishment of the envisaged national Training Fund Council will be done in a few months’ time, according to the Etsip Review report, which was made public this week. A total of 4 302 tertiary students received bursaries during the 2009-10 financial year from the Namibia Student Assistance Fund. This figure includes students from Namibia, the SADC region and elsewhere. ‘The Education Ministry believes that we have made great strides [with Etsip] since the October 2008 review conference,’ Deputy Education Minister David Namwandi said. ‘The centre of education and training is a child. To our ministry every child is important and it is therefore our sacred duty to create an environment for every child to learn and progress. We are aware that some of our children still struggle to enjoy a conducive environment to learn,’ he told the conference. Etsip is Namibia’s roadmap to the development plan Vision 2030, which envisages Namibia as an industrialised nation. The repetition of grades is still a concern. The target for Grade One was 18,2 per cent in 2008 and 16,7 per cent for 2009, but the repetition rate was 20,7 per cent in 2008 and 20,8 per cent in 2009. The repetition rate for Grade 5 in 2009 was 23,2 per cent. ‘This negative trend must be reduced urgently. We have to find out why so many of our children are not progressing and curb that negative trend once and for all,’ Namwandi urged. The three-day meeting will also discuss bottlenecks and shortcomings in the education system and how to deal with them. Speaking on behalf of the donors, EU Ambassador Elisabeth Pape said the latest Etsip statistics showed that about 21 000 teachers were teaching about 585 000 children in Namibian schools. The EU has in the meantime disbursed all of the remaining 6,5 million euros (about N$65 million) for the current Etsip phase, Pape said. Statistics of the 2007 school year, released this month, revealed that the percentage of schoolchildren who did not have to share textbooks with others had dropped from 47 per cent to 32 per cent for reading books and from 48 per cent to 32 per cent for mathematics books. ‘We commend the ministry for starting a study on school dropouts and repetition rates,’ Pape said. ‘While net enrolment in primary schools increased to 98,3 per cent this year, a good achievement, dropout rates increased in 2009 with almost 13 000 children having left school before completion,’ she said. Education until the age of 16 is a legal right in Namibia. ‘Is it not a violation of the rights of children if dropouts increased by 22 per cent since 2007?’ Pape asked. ‘Over a quarter of the girls who dropped out did so because of pregnancy. Over 1 000 children dropped out due to too long distance to schools,’ she added. The Etsip programme alone could not be the answer for everything, she added. HIV-AIDS was a grim reality and Etsip could co-operate more with Government’s HIV-AIDS and OVC policies. ‘Statistics reveal the sad fact that 419 teachers died last year, 57 per cent of them – aged between 20 and 40 – due to illness. Deaths among schoolchildren followed the same trend, with 54 per cent of children who died due to illness.’ These figures exposed some of the crude realities that influenced the education sector, the EU Ambassador pointed out. ‘We have to form new areas of co-operation with stakeholders, also by bringing in international experience,’ Pape noted. Etsip is financed by Government, local business people, the EU, Spain, the UN, the US Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and Lux Development, among others. Last weekend the MCA handed over 700 000 English, mathematics and science textbooks worth N$34,9 million to Government. At the end of the three-day conference a final review report will be compiled, which will include details of the spending on Etsip programmes.

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