Quality of education not the best in Namibia – PS

THE current quality of education is not the best to lead Namibia towards achieving its goals , especially Vision 2030.

Alfred Ilukena, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, yesterday said: ‘The general consensus is that something should be done in order to improve the quality of education.’In order to address the crisis, the Ministry has designed various programmes like the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (Etsip) ‘to improve the quality of education and ensure that it becomes the key driver towards the attainment of the nation’s aspirations’, Ilukena said at the opening of the first national continual professional development (CPD) forum.According to the PS, pre-service education is important in educator development, but on its own, it never constitutes the total professional formation of an educator. ‘Through CPD, educators can build on what they learnt in pre-service or initial education and improve their subject content knowledge, their pedagogical knowledge as well as their attitudes towards the teaching profession.’The PS said it has become the norm that teaching is no longer treated as a calling. ‘They are not committed; it’s just a job.’He called on collaboration and coordination regarding the approach to CPD. ‘It does not help for you to work in isolation, each pulling in a different direction, yet we all have one common objective to address and that is to improve the quality of teaching and learning.’Also, CPD programmes need to be better monitored and evaluated, Ilukena said. ‘In order to ensure that our CPD is effective, there is a need to always track the programmes, assess them and gather data in terms of how well they are doing in positively impacting on practice and what corrective measures can be taken when necessary.’Ilukena said there also exists a need for proper policies about CPD otherwise it cannot succeed. ‘It should spell out the positive and negative sanctions involved. For instance, in some countries, you have a system where teachers are required by policy or by law to attain a given number of CP hours in a given cycle in order for them to be registered to practice as teachers.’Basilius Haingura, the secretary general of the Namibia National Teachers’ Union (Nantu) welcomed the forum, saying that ‘it promises to reconnect the ideal with the practice. In the process, professional satisfaction and teachers’ careers will be enhanced and learners will benefit from a highly trained and motivated school workforce.’