Policy To Blame

THANK you for giving me a space in your informative newspaper to express my views on the just released grade 10 results.

I am a teacher and have been teaching for seven years now. After the results were released, parents, teachers, learners, concerned citizens and all stakeholders had mixed feelings as the number of unemployed youth in our sparsely populated country increase.People who are not directly involved in education, people with short memories, people with little or no education at all, parents and many others are saying the reason is that teachers are not teaching.We are simply implementing the policy of the Ministry of Education based on the promotional requirements.All teachers have to dance to the music of Nangolo Mbumba.The policy says that learners are not allowed to repeat the phase twice, but must be transferred to the next grade.That grade can be 10 or any other grade.You can find learners who are in grade 8 (even at our school) who do not know how to read and write.How on earth can I pass these types of learners in grade 10? They were transferred throughout all grades as this is the Ministry policy and unfortunately they find themselves in grade 10.At the end of the day, what goes around comes around.Learners who are over-age are transferred to grade 10 no matter whether they scored G symbols in all 9 subjects or were even ungraded.If you try to violate the policy to let learners repeat for the second time, then you are committing a serious crime.Are you still going to point fingers at teachers? I doubt it.One could ask me why other schools like Oshigambo HS, Windhoek HS etc usually score more than a 90% pass.This is self-explanatory as selection plays a major role here.Only the best learners are admitted at these schools.In conclusion, people with common sense will discover where the problem lies.The current education system must be reformed, if not totally abolished.Top officials should not relax and expect teachers to perform under any circumstances.The facts are known and action must be taken now.Disgusted Teacher OhangwenaAfter the results were released, parents, teachers, learners, concerned citizens and all stakeholders had mixed feelings as the number of unemployed youth in our sparsely populated country increase.People who are not directly involved in education, people with short memories, people with little or no education at all, parents and many others are saying the reason is that teachers are not teaching.We are simply implementing the policy of the Ministry of Education based on the promotional requirements.All teachers have to dance to the music of Nangolo Mbumba.The policy says that learners are not allowed to repeat the phase twice, but must be transferred to the next grade.That grade can be 10 or any other grade.You can find learners who are in grade 8 (even at our school) who do not know how to read and write.How on earth can I pass these types of learners in grade 10? They were transferred throughout all grades as this is the Ministry policy and unfortunately they find themselves in grade 10.At the end of the day, what goes around comes around.Learners who are over-age are transferred to grade 10 no matter whether they scored G symbols in all 9 subjects or were even ungraded.If you try to violate the policy to let learners repeat for the second time, then you are committing a serious crime.Are you still going to point fingers at teachers? I doubt it.One could ask me why other schools like Oshigambo HS, Windhoek HS etc usually score more than a 90% pass.This is self-explanatory as selection plays a major role here.Only the best learners are admitted at these schools.In conclusion, people with common sense will discover where the problem lies.The current education system must be reformed, if not totally abolished.Top officials should not relax and expect teachers to perform under any circumstances.The facts are known and action must be taken now.Disgusted Teacher Ohangwena