A section of the so-called opposition political parties recently had a field day in the media in their criticism of the Minister of Education, Sport and Culture Katrina Hanse-Himarwa, regarding the pitiful and dismal examination results of the Grade 12 learners last year.
The results show a decrease in the number of graded learners from 93.9 percent in 2014 to 92.9 percent last year.
The results also show that 29.8 percent of the Grade 12 candidates who sat for last year’s examinations qualified for university admission compared to 39.9 in 2014.
This is a reality that Namibia has been living with for the past 25 years with only an intermittent incremental improvement from one year to the other, if not retrogression.
Thus given this state of affairs from year to year with marginal improvement in one year, if not marginal retrogression the following like the results of last year are showing, any one, let alone parents, cannot be expected to ignore such a state of affairs in our education system, nor afford to be complacent and quiet about it. In this regard the so-called opposition political parties cannot be blamed for being consequent in their criticism.
However, what is outlandish is that they called for the head of Minister Katrina Hanse-Himarwa, who has been in this position for only about ten months following her appointment by President Hage Geingob in March last year.
One cannot but sympathise with the minister for being unfairly targeted. One cannot but wonder what Hanse-Himarwa may have been expected to deliver within the said ten months. Not only this but could it honestly and fairly be said that within these ten months there has been nothing the minister may have delivered in one or the other areas of her responsibilities other than in either the Grade 10 and 12 examination results?
This year, to mention but one thing, secondary education is free. Needless to say, given the abject poverty in our country and lack of therewithal by the majority of the parents, if only in sending and keeping children under their care to schools, this is surely a great policy leap. But it looks like to many, including the “opposition”, this is nothing but a small feat.
There’s no denying that education for as long as Namibia is old, 25 years or so, continues to be the Achilles heel of the Namibian political and policy environment, and without any exception, no minister in the education portfolio, which itself has seen many metamorphoses in the desperation for delivery, can claim significant milestones, or conversely can be fingered as an absolute failure.
For all intents and purposes Katrina-Himarwa has inherited a ministry with an unenviable legacy in terms of delivery, reflecting on the fact that year in and year out half, slightly less or more than a half of the thousands of candidates who have been sitting for either the Grade 10 or 12 examinations, have not been able to achieve the requisite mark.
As a result the spinners of the education system have been toying with the passing mark at will giving rise to the perception of the lowering of standards. That this situation is a legacy of close to 25 years, seems to be of little or no consequence. Hence the expectation that incumbent the education minister must have delivered in a spell of ten months. Delivered on what? This is not even clear, in view of the hosts of deliverables.
Is it fair to expect Hanse-Himarwa to undo what could not be undone in 25 years within ten months? Certainly not! Not only this but what is good for the goose must also be good for the gander. And is this expectation only on Hanse-Himarwa or on all ministers? If the latter, then the performance of some of the ministries or ministers may not come close to education in terms of their dismal performance.
One cannot but also pose the pertinent question whether the responsibility of undoing and reversing the erratic performance of the education ministry is necessarily solely that of the responsible minister, or the whole Cabinet? Or of all the stakeholders and role players in education for that matter?
One cannot but wonder how then the education minister should solely be held responsible? Whatever happened, or is happening to collective responsibility, especially of the Cabinet, and as much that of our lawmakers, not excusing and excluding the very members of the “opposition” political parties in this regard, and the wide spectrum of role players and stakeholders? That said, there should be no doubt that the countdown is starting only now in terms of performance by the various ministries, if the performance agreements the contents thereof just revealed, are to be nothing more than hogwash.