Grade 12 results no cause for joy

NAMIBIA’S Grade 12s who sat the Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSC) ordinary level in 2010 showed no significant improvement compared to the previous year.

In fact, Deputy Minister of Education David Namwandi cautioned, ‘the performance of full-time and part-time candidates, in particular from Grades A to D, remains a concern and a future challenge to the Ministry of Education and the country’. Namwandi called on partners in education to take hands to turn the crisis around. ‘Concerted efforts are thus required to reverse the situation. I sincerely hope that the forthcoming national conference on education will find an amicable solution and come up with effectively formulated strategies to rescue the situation.’This conference to reform the crisis in the education sector is scheduled to take place later this year.Furthermore, Namwandi announced, a mere 18% (or 3 656) of full-time pupils managed to score a C grade or higher in English.This is 16 more than in the 2009 academic year. ‘However, this number (3 656) is expected to increase when calculations are made on credits obtained by the part-time candidates, which they accumulated over the years, thus a significant number will qualify for admission to institutions of higher learning.’A minimum of a C grade in English is but one of the requirements for university exemption.The Erongo Region emerged as the top performer last year – up from the fifth place in 2009.In second place was Hardap. This southern region was in sixth position during the previous year; followed by Khomas, which moved one place up from fourth place in 2009.The Kunene Region remains in the last position.It also emerged that private schools were the top performers last year. St Boniface College in the Kavango Region was the overall best performer, while St Paul’s College was second and Windhoek Gymnasium was in third position. Namwandi added that from the ministry’s analysis of the results, there has been ‘a slight improvement in the number of candidates graded’.