WINDHOEK – The Minister of Education Dr David Namwandi on Friday officially launched the Namibia Education Transition Fund (NETF) at the Havana Primary School in Katutura.
NETF, which will run over the next four years, from 2014 to 2017, is proposed as a transitional mechanism for development partners to jointly support the Ministry of Education to lead the reinvigoration of the education sector in Namibia. Over the next four years, between N$100 million and N$120 million would be allocated to the NETF.
Development partners are the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the European Union (EU).
The fund is transitional in that it is intended to strengthen the foundation already laid by the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP) , specifically to enable Namibia to expedite progress towards equitable and quality education. NETF is also a mechanism to assist the Ministry of Education to strengthen education delivery mechanisms.
The fund will work towards improving the quality of educational services and enhance access, retention, completion and achievement of learners in all schools across the country. Special attention will be given to the most vulnerable children and those that have been excluded from mainstream education.
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This transition fund programme is well-aligned to our efforts to provide free and compulsory education, our constitutional obligation to all children in Namibia,” Namwandi said. The minister added that government has since independence demonstrated unwavering commitment to education by consistently allocating at least 22 percent of the national budget to education,” said Namwandi at the launch in the informal settlement of Havana.
This is above the internationally recognised average of 20 percent for success. Namibia is close to achieving universal primary education and has eliminated gender disparities at all levels of education.
Tremendous progress has also been made in improving the quality of the teaching force, with 78 percent of primary teachers qualified to teach at primary level.
UNICEF representative Micaela Marques de Sousa said the Namibian government takes the right to education seriously. However, many challenges regarding equitable and quality education have begun to emerge in the country. De Sousa pointed out that in 2011 less than half of Grade 5 learners achieved the minimum score in standardised achievement tests, although the results showed an improvement from the first test conducted in 2005.
She added that low competency at primary school level means children are not “prepared for secondary level education as evidenced by high repetition rates of about 31 percent in Grade 8 and a low pass rate in Grade 10.”
Marques de Sousa further highlighted that while all children have an equal chance of starting primary school the majority of poor children drop out before they reach secondary school.
“Only 46 percent of children starting Grade 1 reach Grade 11. Nationally, children from the poorest households represent only four percent of Grade 10 learners while 38 percent come from the richest households.”
She stressed that the cost of children dropping out of school is too high to be allowed to continue as it would perpetuate inequality and undermine efforts towards poverty reduction.
“Recent media reports on the status of the education sector are yet another reminder to us that despite huge gains since independence the education sector is beginning to show signs of inadequate progress towards equitable access to quality education for all Namibia’s children,” De Sousa said.
By Alvine Kapitako