Nantu wants automatic promotion out

GRADE 10 repeaters must be allowed back into full-time schooling while the Ministry of Education needs to review the automatic promotion policy at junior secondary schools, which contributes to high failure rates, the Namibia National Teachers’ Union said yesterday.

Reacting to last year’s Grade 10 results, which saw more than half of the 36 633 fulltime pupils failing, Nantu agreed with the Directorate of National Examinations and Assessment (DNEA) that the results were ‘slightly better’ than the previous year.
Only 17 869 or 47,6 per cent of the pupils who wrote last year’s National Junior Secondary Certificate exams managed to score the required 23 points or more and a minimum of an F grade in English to proceed to Grade 11.
That is 2 649 pupils more than in 2007, with about 2 500 part-time candidates expected to join them to bring the total pass rate to around 20 369.
Last year’s number of those who passed the exams was the highest yet, but that was because there was a record entry of 36 633 fulltime pupils because of the repeaters who were able to return to formal school last year.
Nantu said the fact that more pupils passed did not mean that there was an actual improvement, as the symbols were not better.
‘The number of candidates who do not qualify for Grade 11 is above 50 per cent and this is not acceptable. It is not normal for a country to sustain an education system that sends an average 15 000 learners to the streets year in and year out, as it might be detrimental to the national development in the long run,’ said Basilius Haingura, Secretary General of Nantu.
Haingura suggested that the Government review its automatic promotion policy at junior secondary level.
Government has in the past defended the policy, stating that the public must stop calling pupils who repeat classes ‘failures’.
Education Permanent Secretary Vitalis Ankama said calling children failures kills their motivation to get ahead.
Ankama said pupils who repeat and those promoted automatically were supposed to be given more attention and their progress monitored to avoid more failures.
The 1999 Presidential Commission on Education suggested that parents be consulted before children are promoted or told to repeat their classes.
‘If they [parents] feel that a learner will not benefit by being promoted to the next grade, the learners can then be allowed to repeat,’ Ankama said earlier.
Nantu’s Haingura said their analysis of the results has once again confirmed their belief that more needs to be done in rural Namibia.
Nantu wants the Ministry of Education to provide incentives, allowances and accommodation to attract teachers to rural schools while in-service training and professional development must also be put in place to develop teachers.
The teachers’ union also wants subject advisory services in the regions intensified to yield better results.
‘Regional inspectorate should frequently visit the schools to provide guidance and advice to school management for the effective running of the schools and eventual improvement in results,’ Haingura said.
He called for more commitment and dedication from teachers for the upcoming school year.