Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
WINDHOEK – Only 25 percent of about 42 000 candidates who sat for the Grade 12 examinations in 2013, both full-time and part-time will qualify for university admission this year.
In terms of the full-time candidates this means 37 percent qualify to enter university. This situation has been described by some critics and other stakeholders in education as a crisis. How they came to the conclusion of education being in a state of crisis only they can expound on, as much as they also need to further elaborate on whether this situation only becames a crisis now when this seems to have been a general trend since independence. For me the pertinent question as what makes the 2013 results a crisis, if the situation has been developing and evolving for a long time with little or only marginal improvement, if any, from year to year. It is not as if the authorities, and the country at large has not been aware of this situation. Indeed that all has not been sound and well in the education sector, is an open secret. After all, ecucation is not the only sector that has been infected with an undiagnosed disease. That is why we had the
Presidential Commission on Education, Culture and Training, and about two years ago, the much-vaunted National Education Conference convened by the late Minister of Education, Dr Abraham Iyambo. Looks like the recommendations of both the commission and the cational education conference are yet to bear fruit. We have seen little progress in education if the Grade 12 results since independence, and especially last year, are anything to go by. What is or has been amiss? Either, both the commission and the national conference misdirected and misapplied themselves, ala the proverbial shooting in the air, or the Ministry of Education has been misdirecting and misapplying itself, if not short-changing itself in terms of the implementation of the recommendations from both the commission and national conference. But can and should the buck really only stop with either the commission, the conference and Ministry of Education? What about the rest of the country, and the hordes of players and interest groups that have been parading and priding themselves as experts and champions of education? What are and have been their dues and contributions, both in terms of the requisite diagnoses, and the subsequent remedies, in the face of the perceived unfolding educational crisis? Especially, what is their take now in the face of a call to go back to the drawing board? Were the commission and the cational education conference not the typical drawing boards?
Whatever and whichever way one may see the goings on in the education sector, the good thing is that the Minister of Education, Dr David Namwandi, seems not only to be aware that all is not well in education, but is also also dissatisfied with the recent performance of the 12th graders. “I am not satisfied,” further adding that: “I do not believe in remaining static. I want improvement.” This is no doubt a point of departure, but can the country realistically expect Dr Namwandi and the Ministry of Education to shoulder what is obviously a mammoth task in terms of diagnosing, let alone overhauling the education system alone? What has become of collective ministerial responsibility and what is the role of the whole country in this instance? Because obviously the dismal Grade 12 results cannot be laid squarely at the door of the Ministry of Education or the schools alone. Somehow all our politicians and the whole country carry and should bear responsibility and answerability for what has been transpiring in the education sector. Especially in view of the fact that the signs have allways been there and we cannot cannot now turn around and say only the Ministry of Education should have noticed and heeded the signs. Where was the rest of the country while these during tell tale signs persisted? Some observers have it that the root cause of what we are seeing at the secondary level, is situated at the primary level where children do not receive sound foundational instruction to prepare them for the future. In my view society cannot be exonerated or exonerate itself. What about our homes? To what extent are they proper preparatory grounds for our children? What about our communities? They should not be allowed to abdicate their responsibility for the sorry state education is mired in! In many respects than one, building and creating the correct foundation for our children for their future schooling, cannot and should not be something to be taken lightly and to abdicate and arrogate to schools and the governmnt. It is a matter of national importance and ultimately has a significant bearing on our national agenda, one aspect thereof which is industrialisation in terms of Vision 2030. Realistically if only a fraction of our school leavers reach the tertiary educational level, would we see the country moving towards Vision 2030? For this one I am prepared to put my head on the block and say NO! Not as long as we continue to give the ominous signs in the education sector scant attention or altogether turn a blind eye to the SOS as we seem to have been doing. Not as long as some us fail to pay our dues in the face of such ominous signs in the education sector and choose to pass the buck to the Ministry of Education. Definitely not as long as we do not put the finger on the true pulse of the problem, which is pre-primary and primary education. The work must start now to overhaul our primary education system and to turn it into a strong foundation for the secondary level and ultimately the tertiary level of education for the sake of our children.
That is imperative and infinitely preferable to contemplating pyramidal schemes such as the introduction of A-levels, such as one hears and reads about.