Nust welcomes Grade 11 graduates, Unam remains hesitant

The Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) says it is ready to receive students who have successfully completed Grade 11.

Nust corporate engagement and internationalisation acting director Nashilongo Gervasius says the general minimum admission requirement is 25 points in five subjects.

According to Gervasius, Nust students are admitted based on academic merit, which is assessed by converting score symbols into a point score called the admission point score.

“Altogether, Nust welcomes all applicants who are holders of the Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary Level as a national qualification approved and recognised by the national examination body. This is the priority basis of our requirement,” she said in a statement released on Friday.

Gervasius said the university also has interventional programmes such as the Introduction to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (Stem) programme, which is a bridging course for students who strive to be enrolled in degrees in Stem fields.

Their non-Stem bridging programme has an admission requirement of 22 points, she said.

This comes after the University of Namibia (Unam) said it will not accept Grade 11 school-leavers, as they are not adequately prepared for university level education.

National Institute for Educational Development director Patrick Simalumba says the act of parliament that established Unam and says a 12th certificate is a requirement to the university, is wrong.

Simalumba, who was speaking to Desert FM yesterday, said the developers at that time were correct, but now it is wrong because there is no 12th certificate.

“The reference could at least have been made to the senior secondary certificate,” he said.

According to Simalumba, the situation with Unam needs to be understood by looking at higher education and training systems as a whole.

He added that those who did not qualify for advanced subsidiary (AS) level did not fail, as people seem to believe.

He said ordinary level is the first point of exit in the reformed system and it is a misconception that if pupils do not qualify for AS level, they failed.

“Those with symbols which need to be improved, they can do so through part-time tuition institutions, including the Namibian College for Open Learning,” Simalumba said.

Simalumba said Namibia has 64 vocational training centres registered with the National Council of Higher Education, the National Training Authority and the National Qualification Authority.

He said these institutions are expanding in terms of space and diverse courses to accommodate as many Grade 11 school-leavers as possible.

“Although it takes time, it’s a cost. . . it’s resources, so they can go through that,” he said.

Youth leader Bernard Kavau says Unam is hiding behind the notion of bridging courses for Grade 11 pupils.

He says last year the university took in more than 1 000 Grade 11 pupils who went through bridging courses, and the university not directly saying it is taking Grade 11s is a “strategy”.

“Where do they think we are going to dump all the hundreds of students who did not make it to AS? So it’s completely unreasonable, it’s not justifiable and it doesn’t make sense at all,” Kavau says.

He says when these policies were drawn up, everyone was consulted, including Unam, so he questions why Unam did not reject the policy of making Grade 11 an exit point.

“We definitely don’t support it. . . As long as Nust and other universities are, we are not really bothered,” Kavau says.

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