Albertina Nakale
Windhoek-Grade 10 and 12 learners, who are already struggling to make it through formal education, could be in for a rude shock following the latest announcement from the Namibian College of Open Learning (Namcol).
Namcol has decided to suspend its last contact sessions for the Secondary Education Programme (SEP), which had originally been scheduled for 5 to 21 September 2017.
Because of the serious impact of the current financial crisis on the Namibian economy, Namcol as a government-funded educational institution undertook to put in place measures to help the institution cope under these difficult circumstances.
Namcol Director Heroldt Murangi said that for this current term, the contact sessions at the normal tuition centres ceased on Tuesday (yesterday).
This would to allow time for the mock examinations that will start on Wednesday (today) and end on Wednesday, 23 August 2017. He however, clarified that this unforeseen arrangement did not include contact sessions for block tuition centres that would end on 1 September 2017.
As part of its strategy to increase the pass rate among its learners, Namcol has introduced a block tuition system that takes place during school holidays only.
The first block tuition took place between 20 to 24 March, while Namcol held the second from 1 to 19 May leading up to the next one from 29 August until 1 September this year.
Given this background, Murangi said the announcement served to inform Namcol regional staff, head of centres, tutors, learners, parents and all other stakeholders that it had suspended contact sessions in the third term at all Namcol tuition centres.
He added that Grade 12 learners’ who registered for examinations in English and African languages had to undergo oral assessment as per the Directorate of National Examinations and Assessment (DNEA) requirements between 4 and 15 September 2017.
Furthermore, Murangi explained that Namcol encouraged all Grade 10 and 12 learners to sit for the mock examinations starting on Wednesday (today) at the centres they have registered at.
“Learners are highly encouraged to study on their own when lessons end,” he announced.
Head of centres should be at centres on 6 September 2017 for three hours (from 14:00) to collect marked scripts from tutors and forward them to regional offices.
Equally, he informed learners to collect their marked scripts from the mock examinations at their respective centres on 14 September 2017.
To facilitate this process head of centres and tutors needed to be at centres for three hours on that day to give the marked papers back to the learners.
He advised officials and learners that if they should need any additional information in this regard, they could contact regional managers and area coordinators in their respective regions for clarity.