Allow me space in your paper to have a closer look and outline these two vital concepts, Formal and epistemological access as used in our Namibian education industry.
The English Longman dictionary defines the concept ‘access’ as the right to use something, enter a place or see someone. It further defines access as gaining legal rights to do something. In the religious world, access is used to discuss the accessibility of entering a church building. However, in education access would simply state the way in which educational policies are designed in order to equally accord all students an opportunity to take ownership and be accessible to equal resources needed for their educational success.
Formal access entails that schools in our country should be accessible to all students irrespective of race, colour, social or economic status. Those that have attended apartheid schooling would agree with me that access to formal education was not enjoyed by everyone, especially the black community that was deprived of the benefits that education had to offer.
However, our education system has taken a paradigm shift since independence; access to formal schooling has been made easier for all students from different social and economic backgrounds. Parents all over the country recently received a huge relief on their hectic January budget when they had learned that primary and secondary education have been made free. The hopes of the many hopeless parents were restored and I can’t help but to applaud the government for finally implementing what is provided for in the Namibian constitution that allows every Namibian child to have a right to free education. It is also evident that more classes have been built throughout the country and we often read in local newspapers that the Ministry of Education is still busy constructing additional classrooms countrywide.
Mathematically speaking, this would mean that approximately over 90 percent of the Namibian students within compulsory schooling age will have access to formal education at least by the year 2030.
What is practically known in Namibia is that apartheid education has shattered the academic potentials of many of our parents, friends and relatives. Their learning potentials were overlooked or perhaps the system then simply did not cater for them due to reasons that can range from political, social and economic. I can further argue that the few that the apartheid system accommodated were forced to become unqualified teachers with the highest qualification of Standard 6 (now Grade 8).
Most of these teachers were sent to rural schools with limited resources that could not assist students to become well equipped with skills and knowledge necessary for development. Therefore, it has become relevant to shape our education system to make it more accessible for every Namibian child that will eventual prepare students academically and socially for them to be able to muddle through the global village.
Not so long ago, students from the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) and the University of Namibia (UNAM) were demanding reduced tertiary fees, a demand that led to register now and pay later.
I believe these efforts were aimed at ensuring that education is not compromised due to financial constraints of students.
Conversely, it is of the essence for the Namibian government to note that having our classrooms filled with students, having all resources, or making education free from primary to tertiary level do not guarantee that students have access to powerful forms of knowledge.
Access is more than enrolment or resources, it is more than free education, and access goes beyond having too many schools and teachers filling up classes. Access is about ensuring that students acquire knowledge, it is all about in-depth results of schooling.
In his book ‘Learning to teach in South Africa’ Morrow a South African academic and an author stated that ‘while formal access is important in the light of our history of unjustifiable institutional exclusion, epistemological access is what the game is about’. These are very strong words from Morrow to unlock our thinking, that as much as we try to make education free and have every child in school, we haven’t achieved anything until we know that learning in our schools is truly taking place and students are acquiring necessary knowledge that is relevant for the sustainable development of Namibia.
Another respected British mathematician, theatre author and a poet that the world has known Jacob Bronowski defines knowledge as an unending adventure at the end of uncertainty. This means that we also have to appreciate that there is no such thing as perfect knowledge. Knowledge can never be certain; knowledge varies depending on how students acquire it. One cannot claim to know everything, because when such claims manifests in our societies then we can be sure of conflicts and endless disagreements.
The teaching of Morrow reminds us that the ultimate aim of teachers’ education is to enable epistemological access, which is access to meaningful forms of knowledge. Our teachers, instructors, and lecturers need to have it in mind that new ways of thinking about teaching are needed if we are to meet the challenges of enabling students to gain epistemological access. But the question is, how do we as teachers and educators ensure that we create an environment where knowledge is accessible? Until we can be able to answer that question, the purpose of children going to school is meaningless.
Notwithstanding, there is a need for our education system to make an everlasting engagement between formal and epistemological access. The starting point can be making sure that our schools have qualified and hardworking teachers with the interest of children at heart, teachers that have sufficient subject knowledge in their individual areas of specialisation. Teachers’ primary role should be to nurture and help students to acquire knowledge and skills. It is my conviction that all teachers deliver their lessons in a learner-centred approach where students have an opportunity to engage with each other and learn from each other’s experiences.
I am sure we haven’t forgotten a lesson from a well-known Brazilian educator Paolo Freire who urged that students should not be treated as piggy banks or empty vessels to be filled with knowledge by the expert teacher, but rather allow them to discover, construct own meaning and find solutions for themselves.
Moreover, it is of no good to have our universities and colleges filled up with students whose only ambition is to graduate and get a job. We rather train students that will improve on the current status quo of our economy.
Finally, there is an urgent need to redirect the whole Namibian education system in order to have an equal balance of formal and epistemological access and it should remain a collective effort for all Namibians.
• Gottfried Mbundu Muhembo is a high school teacher.