Pupkewitz Has Constructive Criticism

ON March 29, 2006, the executive chairman of Pupkewitz Holdings ‘pressed some warning buttons’ on education in Namibia as a way of pursuing a solution to the existing crisis.

“If we have intelligence, imagination, and the ability to dream, things can happen,” said Graca Machel, an educator and a politician. If we have the functioning ears we must hear, understand and get out of our tendency to denial and do what has to be done.In Namibia, it looks as if your contribution only makes sense if you are a member of the executive branch of the government or a personal advisor to the high offices.Or else you fall into the category of being a critic and have your background and skin colour questioned.Anything done without passion is not much worth doing! I wonder whether the current government will start lifting its feet to find out that what it is avoiding as “blame” is continuously increasing.It is already said that we have a problem of “supply and demand.”We produce what we do not consume and consume what we do not produce.The same concern is in Mr.Pupkewitz contribution that, “Social tensions are building up as poorly educated youths are frustrated by the lack of opportunities.”The poor school output translates into poor input in tertiary and vocational training – the abject failure of vocational training over the past 15 years is easily seen in the dismal output of competent artisans and generally poor quality of tertiary and university graduates.”Namibia is now suffering from skills anorexia”, as Pupkewitz said.We can wish to fill up this country with our own “doctors, geologists, scientists, engineers, technicians, astronauts, pilots, artist, sportsmen and sportswomen” but as long as we do not act, we will remain the same.We are used to a tradition of having our hands held out to beg and borrow expertise, (researchers, coaches, consultants, specialists, engineers and doctors), donations (food, material, and money) and others like nurses, bricklayers, teaches, shopkeepers, tailors and carpenters.This tendency, attitude, belief and culture of dependency should have stopped by now.Is it then a crime for any Ministry, apart from Education and Health, to allocate money, from its budget, for bursaries/loans to award to students who will study and plough back? This can prevent a lack of required skills or expertise in the country.The problems in education will only be solved once we own them and start thinking about the sustainable solutions.We cannot dream of Vision 2030 and NDP2 with a team consisting of mostly semi-literates, school-dropout officials, politically-appointed civil servants who prove to be incompetent, unskilled, inexperienced, indisciplined but politically motivated.We should aim for productivity for the common good of all our people.Steven Mvula NamibiaIf we have the functioning ears we must hear, understand and get out of our tendency to denial and do what has to be done.In Namibia, it looks as if your contribution only makes sense if you are a member of the executive branch of the government or a personal advisor to the high offices.Or else you fall into the category of being a critic and have your background and skin colour questioned.Anything done without passion is not much worth doing! I wonder whether the current government will start lifting its feet to find out that what it is avoiding as “blame” is continuously increasing.It is already said that we have a problem of “supply and demand.”We produce what we do not consume and consume what we do not produce.The same concern is in Mr.Pupkewitz contribution that, “Social tensions are building up as poorly educated youths are frustrated by the lack of opportunities.”The poor school output translates into poor input in tertiary and vocational training – the abject failure of vocational training over the past 15 years is easily seen in the dismal output of competent artisans and generally poor quality of tertiary and university graduates.”Namibia is now suffering from skills anorexia”, as Pupkewitz said.We can wish to fill up this country with our own “doctors, geologists, scientists, engineers, technicians, astronauts, pilots, artist, sportsmen and sportswomen” but as long as we do not act, we will remain the same.We are used to a tradition of having our hands held out to beg and borrow expertise, (researchers, coaches, consultants, specialists, engineers and doctors), donations (food, material, and money) and others like nurses, bricklayers, teaches, shopkeepers, tailors and carpenters.This tendency, attitude, belief and culture of dependency should have stopped by now.Is it then a crime for any Ministry, apart from Education and Health, to allocate money, from its budget, for bursaries/loans to award to students who will study and plough back? This can prevent a lack of required skills or expertise in the country.The problems in education will only be solved once we own them and start thinking about the sustainable solutions.We cannot dream of Vision 2030 and NDP2 with a team consisting of mostly semi-literates, school-dropout officials, politically-appointed civil servants who prove to be incompetent, unskilled, inexperienced, indisciplined but politically motivated.We should aim for productivity for the common good of all our people. Steven Mvula Namibia