Keetmanshoop
The //Karas regional education director, |Awebahe ||Hoeseb, says that having learners attain 27 points is not impossible, adding that it could be done with a dedicated team.
The Minister of Education, Arts and Culture, Katrina Hanse-Himarwa, recently revealed an ambitious plan to increase the Grade 10 minimum pass requirement from 23 to 27 points. She said at the time that this will improve the quality of education and encourage learners to work harder.
Although //Karas performed dismally in last year’s JSC exam, ||Hoeseb is positive that with the right team of dedicated learners, parents and educators getting the 27 points is not impossible.
Statistics however suggest otherwise as they indicate that if the pass requirement was already set at 27 points for last year’s exams, only 23 percent of the learners that sat for exams would have made it to Grade 11, leaving a staggering 77 percent on the streets or scrambling for a place at Namcol.
Of the 1 385 learners that sat for the JSC exams last year only 40 percent, which is 554 learners, met the current requirement of 23 points, making the region the second last poorest performer of the 14 regions, and statistics suggest it would have been disastrous if the pass requirement was 27 points.
About 1 067 learners failed to attain the proposed 27 points in the region last year, with only 318 managing to get 27 points and above.
Despite the negative projections from last year’s results, ||Hoeseb maintains schools can improve to meet the proposed target.
He stressed that people should not be so negative about the proposed increase. He said that people have gotten so comfortable with the 23 points that they are already foreseeing disaster before the change is even enforced. People should instead advise on what can be done to ensure learners attain the proposed 27 points, he adds.
“We should not be prophets of doom – we should be positive and support the minister,” he charged.
He stated that if people work as a team to address some factors that are hampering the quality of education then excellent results can be obtained.
||Hoeseb pointed out that many a time learners fail because principals, teachers, learners and parents are not committed to work harder.
He further indicated some teachers do not finish their syllabus on time, which means learners miss out on certain basic competencies, while he also alluded to a lack of monitoring as a major hampering factor, saying that some teachers only teach when they are being monitored, which should not be the case because they are paid to teach.
He also called on parents to do their part at home by disciplining their children, saying teachers spend more time on solving issues of learner indiscipline than teaching.
On the poor infrastructure and lack of classrooms which leave some learners to be taught under trees and other unconducive environments, the //Karas education head said that’s not a major factor that affects performance.
He noted there are schools with bad conditions that have performed better than schools with good infrastructure, stating that a dedicated human resource willing to give their all, is all that is needed for good results.
“All you need is a dedicated principal, HoDs, teachers, learners and parents to make sure learning and teaching take place properly,” he said.