By Berio Mbala WINDHOEK The Namibian College of Open Learning is making great strides in the field of distance learning. Distance education, like any education system in the country, looks for the best interests of young Namibians. Namcol would like to maximize access of enrollment for more learners and offer good quality programmes and courses at the lowest costs. The Director of Namcol, Heroldt Murangi, said statistics of distance enrollment with Namcol shows a dramatic increase every year. “In 2003, 75.6% Grade 10 learners enrolled through distance learning and the following year showed an increase of 2% at 77.5%. In 2005 it also showed a 2.5% increase at 79.8% and in 2006 ended at 81.2%, and that’s an indication that Namcol education is helpful towards our young people in the country,” he said. For Grade 12s, the statistics show an increase from 2003 to 2006. “In 2003, 83.3% learners enrolled at Namcol, while in 2004 – 88.2%; for 2005 it was 89.6% and last year showed a slight decrease of 87%. “This proves to us that distance education is very convincing due to the increase in the number of enrollments through our centre, and our learners trust the system of study because they study at their own time, place and pace,” he said. Murangi said learners at Namcol study on their own but challenges needed to be tackled in order to improve the grades of learners. “Every year at the beginning of the year when results are released, we look at the subjects in which learners performed poorly and formulate a strategy to focus on those subjects so that the following year the same thing shouldn’t happen,” Murangi said. “Last year, we had an essay competition to improve our learners in writing, in which all Namcol learners took part and were asked to write an essay which was marked by trained teachers in which we chose the best article which was published in the local print media,” he said. Namcol, he said, would like to focus on giving education and training to every young person in Namibia because not everyone can afford to study at expensive colleges, and to “avoid learners dropping out, we offer our distance programmes to those willing to study further”. In order to pass one has to have commitment, dedication and discipline, with the help of parents and the contribution of Namcol, he said. ” If one leg is missing how will one achieve the planned goal?” Namcol’s contribution is to provide students with trained teachers during the vacation period, provide quality materials and an effective logistics system. This year, Namcol’s enrolment commenced on 22 January and closed on 5 March. Namcol has 133 centres throughout the country, divided into four regions: the northern, north-eastern, central and southern.