Mbumba Fails To Impress

I RECALL feeling a little bit sceptical and worried by the fact Nangolo Mbumba was appointed the Minister of Education in Pohamba’s Cabinet.

I conveyed my worry to my colleague who did not share my sentiments and we, as gentlemen, agreed to disagree. After about 100 days in office, Minister Mbumba produced, in my views, one of the most shocking ministerial interviews (refer to page 8 and 9 of the New Era of the 27th of June 2005) in the fifteen years of the history of independent Namibia.With due respect to Minister Mbumba, he does not seem to know the difference between the JSC graduate on the one hand and an IGSCE graduate on the other; that IGSCE and HIGSCE are just two curricular strata of the Senior Secondary phase (kids being in the same grade but doing the subject at different levels) and that the Polytechnic of Namibia does not train school teachers.Are these things, of which the Minister has a ‘shambolic’ knowledge about, not the basics of our educational system? This unfortunate situation forces one to ask the question “Is Mbumba taking one step towards Vision 2030 or towards limiting the mathematical education of our kids to the simplicity of “diVision 20/30” (Remember that Minister Mbumba said “a teacher of mathematics must know ‘something’ about mathematics better than the ordinary person”? It looks like Minister Mbumba derailed on arrival or did I not read his interview properly?D Uuyuni waKamati WindhoekAfter about 100 days in office, Minister Mbumba produced, in my views, one of the most shocking ministerial interviews (refer to page 8 and 9 of the New Era of the 27th of June 2005) in the fifteen years of the history of independent Namibia.With due respect to Minister Mbumba, he does not seem to know the difference between the JSC graduate on the one hand and an IGSCE graduate on the other; that IGSCE and HIGSCE are just two curricular strata of the Senior Secondary phase (kids being in the same grade but doing the subject at different levels) and that the Polytechnic of Namibia does not train school teachers.Are these things, of which the Minister has a ‘shambolic’ knowledge about, not the basics of our educational system? This unfortunate situation forces one to ask the question “Is Mbumba taking one step towards Vision 2030 or towards limiting the mathematical education of our kids to the simplicity of “diVision 20/30” (Remember that Minister Mbumba said “a teacher of mathematics must know ‘something’ about mathematics better than the ordinary person”? It looks like Minister Mbumba derailed on arrival or did I not read his interview properly? D Uuyuni waKamati Windhoek