Businessman and philanthropist Albert Bertolini has warned of a looming time bomb if the quality of education is not addressed.
Bertolini, who has been investing in the education sector for years through school funding, said the education system is in a “crisis”.
The investor made these remarks recently at a seminar aimed at tackling the education crisis, and empowering Namibia’s future leaders.
It was a collaboration between M&G Investments Namibia, a global asset management and investment company, and the Bank of Namibia (BoN).
Bertolini is the managing director of M&G Investments Namibia.
“Namibia’s education reality is that it is in a crisis, and it is a matter of emergency that needs all our attention,” he said.
Bertolini, who has been assisting various schools with not only funding but also strategic planning for better performance, observed that factors such as a lack of leadership and accountability, policy errors and lack of funding have contributed to the sector’s shortfalls.
“Other issues include ill-disciplined learners, disillusioned teachers, and school principals with poor leadership qualities because there is no motivation,” he emphasised.
Having engaged with many schools countrywide, Bertolini observed that many school principals are rarely at school, which contributes to teachers’ irresponsible behaviour.
“For example, if the principal is a part-time farmer, he goes to his farm, and then to the auction. This means the teachers become disillusioned because the principal is not at school,” he added.
Another issue Bertolini highlighted is the promotion of learners to other grades, even when they had failed.
“If I am going to be passed on without studying, I don’t have to study. That is why there is a low rate of passing in schools,” he asserted.
Crisis
Adding to the discourse, the parliamentary standing committee on human resources and community development recently visited various regions to conduct consultations regarding the motions on the crisis in the education sector.
During the consultations, some of the challenges raised included dilapidated hostels, a need for skilled teachers, technology scarcity, and outdated libraries.
In an interview, member of parliament Utaara Mootu said among the 61 schools catering to grade 10/12 learners, 28 lack laboratory facilities, while 11 are inadequately equipped.
This leaves only 22 schools with functional laboratories.
“A significant backlog of textbooks has accumulated over the past 2-3 years, with no new supplies reaching schools during this period. Despite the hostel capacity for 500 students, this year, they were compelled to accommodate 1 200, forcing some learners to rent unsupervised accommodation where they are vulnerable to various social challenges,” she stated.
Mootu added that the backlog of textbooks leads to learners not having the necessary tools to advance their educational ambitions.
“They cannot get As and Bs. They are not able to have extra classes at home and read up on various resources because they have to come to school, and either share a textbook or use outdated textbooks. These do not align with the new curriculum demands. This affects the performance output of learners,” she stressed.
On the issue of a lack of laboratories, Mootu said the few available laboratories at some schools only cater to chemistry subjects but not other critical subjects that need practicals such as agriculture, biology and so forth.
This limits learners from exploring the curriculum objectives and understanding what the curriculum demands, causing them to struggle when they go to institutions of higher learning.
The parliamentarian also raised the issue of a lack of hostel service subsidies from the government at combined schools.
This results in learners camping at schools, especially during exams, while others walk long distances to school.
“There are other examples we picked up, where learners have to go unsupervised and rent houses in different locations. From those houses to school, they are exposed to the social ills we face within society because they are unsupervised,” she said.
All these issues, Mootu said, are compromising the education system.
Report
Namibia has shown commitment to transforming the education sector through a sequence of policy reforms.
Whilst this has resulted in improvements in key indicators of access, quality remains a challenge, according to the United Nations Children›s Fund (Unicef) Namibia budget brief 2023/24.
This report shows that an estimated two-thirds of 10-year-olds are learning poor, unable to read and understand a simple written text.
Four out of 10 children enrol in grade 1 when they are not ready, contributing to high repetition rates.
The report also indicates that Namibia’s spending on education is skewed towards operational expenditure, notably salaries.
Over the five-year period up to 2022/23, spending on salaries averaged 80.3%, compared to teaching and learning materials (13.2%) and infrastructure (3.5%).
This impacts the provision of adequate teaching and learning materials, infrastructure, and subsequently learning outcomes.
The government has allocated a total of N$18.4 billion to the sector in the financial year 2024/25.
“The government is thus encouraged to strengthen the quality of the education workforce, teach at the right levels, and ensure equitable deployment to achieve better outcomes from its huge investment in teachers,” Unicef recommended.
The organisation furthermore suggested that the expenditure mix towards school infrastructure investments need to be balanced through a deliberate school infrastructure development plan.
With high spending on employment costs, investments in quality teaching and learning technologies remain relatively low, negatively impacting outcomes, they noted.
Statistics from Unicef show Namibia’s spending on education ranks among the highest in the East and Southern Africa Region (ESAR).
“Compared to other ESAR countries, Namibia tops the list when education spending is measured as a percentage of total expenditure, and ranks third behind South Africa and Swaziland in US$ per capita spending on education,” reads the document.
This reinforces arguments that Namibia’s spending on education remains commendably high – even by international standards.
Despite such significant investments, major inefficiencies such as high repetition rates, high school dropout rates, infrastructure gaps and inadequacies, persist.
It is estimated that only 41.6% of learners enrolled in Grade 1 reach the final grade of basic education.
Directorate
During consultations with the parliamentary committee, Kavango East director of education Christine Shilima said while the sector has its own challenges, the policy on inclusive education was highlighted.
“Inclusive education means ending segregation or the deliberate exclusion of individuals or groups on the grounds of academic performance, gender, race, culture, religion, lifestyle, health condition or disability. This means no learner should be left out. Every learner has the right to be educated with their peers, friends and family members in their own neighbourhood or local community,” she noted.
“At the same time, we need to make existing infrastructure friendly to learners with severe special needs,” she said.
Shilima also highlighted the challenges they are experiencing in providing quality education.
“We need physical facilities, and the expansion of schools to address overcrowding in Rundu, Ndiyona and Divundu. There is need for the renovation of our physical infrastructure, and there is a shortage of teaching posts and heads of department posts,” she said.
Approached for comment, education executive director Sanet Steenkamp expressed disappointment about a dialogue on the education sector from which the ministry, as the main stakeholder, was excluded.
She was referring specifically to the seminar by M&G Investments Namibia.
“I welcome dialogues such as that to address these critical issues, but I am wondering why they didn’t invite a critical stakeholder. I could have provided them with on-the-spot information. I could tell them about the programmes we are busy with, the national conference on education, some of the recommendations, how we have come up with implementations, how we developed a charter as the implementation tool, and many other things the ministry is doing,” she emphasised.