WINDHOEK – The First Southern African Development Community (SADC) Junior Minister of Tourism, Olavi Hangula, has remarked that the Namibian education system is failing its citizens.
Hangula who has been in this portfolio over a year now made the remarks at the handover of his title to the next SADC Junior Minister of Tourism in Mauritius. “A child is put in Grade 1 and if he/she ends up failing Grade 10 is thrown to Namcol, which is just another repetition of what school was, and yet again failing NamcoL,” stresses Hangula. He adds that citizens are left to seek for jobs which they cannot get due to lack of qualifications. The institutions which again offer vocational training request a minimum number of points, which should be at best required for those wishing to pursue studies in academia rather than in vocational training.
Lacking the points required, the poor citizens are left to rot in poverty. What Namibia needs next other than free education, is an institution which aims to sustain its non-academically inclined population with no requirements, notes Hangula. “With a non-requirement institution, we are trying to put our greatest resources to use-our people- rather than leaving them jobless and poverty stricken. The least we can do is to take them in and train them well to acquire basic self-employment skills. Also, better, when they graduate, give them enough start-up capital, which they can pay back over long periods of time with very less or no interest,” he says.
Hangula appreciates his best experience and which he enjoyed as a SADC Junior Tourism Minister, “perhaps not with bodyguards and a black Benz, but with a sense of Namibian pride and most importantly Southern Africa’s pride. “ Mtunzi, an 18- year old from Zimbabwe is the new SADC Junior Tourism Minister.