H Jacobs
One of the preconditions for the successful delivery of the basic education curriculum indicates that “all schools should be an ICT Level 2 school, according to the ICT Policy for Education 2005”.
This precondition is far-reaching for Namibian schools in which information communication technology is a non-promotional subject in the curriculum. Being in that category of not being necessary for promotion, ICT will never be given the necessary attention and effort it needs in realising a knowledge-based society for Namibia’s Vision 2030.
A knowledge-based society should mean exposing learners to ICT concepts and philosophies from an early age to be well-acquainted with the world of technology. The ministry of education finds it even hard to electrify schools in rural areas, so it begs the question how it will be able to migrate a school to an ICT Level 2 school with the provision of the following conditions as indicated in the curriculum of basic education:
“An ICT Level 2 school has one room with ICTs, audio-visual equipment and internet connectivity; all teachers have the foundation level ICT certification, and at least two staff members have advanced level ICT literacy certification or a higher ICT qualification. The learners should have access to ICT literacy for at least one period per month, and over 20% of communication to the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture is done through email.”
This precondition by the ministry of education is arduous and can never be realized, unless significant work is done regarding the implementation of this condition in Namibian schools.
Most schools do not have these rooms, and if they have, this equipment becomes a white elephant because of the attitude of teachers and the pressure from the curriculum to teach and assess all the competencies of the most important subjects called “promotional”. Thus, little is done to teach and even assess ICT in some schools.
If the ministry of education, together with its curriculum developers, does not realise how crucial the subject ICT is in the development of the country as well as the realisation of a knowledge-based society for Namibia’s Vision 2030, then our learners will continue to suffer with ICT at universities and workplaces because they were not properly exposed to the ever-in-demand sector.