BEING at the helm of the Ministry of Education for 22 months as minister, Dr David Namwandi, who is number 89 on the Swapo list for its candidates for the National Assembly shared some of his major achievements with senior New Era journalist, Albertina Nakale, in a wide-ranging interview on some of the highlights and the challenges facing the country’s education system.
NE: What would you say are your biggest achievements since you became Minister of Education?
DN: “First and foremost, I want to thank His Excellency the President, Hifikepunye Pohamba, for the trust he has bestowed in us – my deputy (Sylvia Makgone) and me after the passing of my dear Comrade Dr Kakururume Abraham Iyambo. May his soul rest in peace. The President (Pohamba) appointed Sylvia and me on 21st February 2012. To date it is exactly a year and 10 months, but politically it is relatively a short time. I should however say the achievements of this ministry should not be attributed to an individual, but to team work and the entire nation. When we took over, we vowed to implement various recommendations emanating from the Education National Conference of 2011, as was endorsed by Cabinet. One was to implement the universal free education (UFE) policy which we announced before the passing away of the late minister. It was our duty to ensure free primary education is implemented to the letter and that we did. About three percent of school enrolment went up in primary schools and that is an achievement. We also introduced an inclusive education policy and that is ongoing and has been approved by Cabinet. Teachers are being trained to ensure we don’t really concentrate only on special schools for disabled learners, but that all learners are equal. We felt it was crucial to review our curriculum. We made sure our education system is inclusive, so that all those who are academic and technical will equally benefit from the system. I feel that only 25 percent of Namibian people who go through formal school are academically inclined and the 75 percent are technical. We believe not all people will go to university. When these lights go off you don’t go to a professor at Unam to come and fix it -you go to technicians. We have consulted with the best education systems in the world such as Britain, Finland, Zimbabwe and Botswana. We also feel some of our children are left behind because parents are unable to pay for secondary education, so we decided to implement free secondary education come 2015 and in 2016 it will be in full swing. The Loudima Institute for Technical and Vocational Training in Congo-Brazzaville was also a dream come true under our reign. We felt it was necessary to remove the Namibia Student Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) from the ministry and now it is a body with its own secretariat. We also ensured that all school uniforms should be made locally instead of creating jobs in other countries. We also implemented the Namibia Training Authority (NTA) levy and brought in zero tolerance of corruption. Remember there was this animal called ‘ghost teachers’. I called in PricewaterhouseCoopers to carry out a forensic audit to ensure that no money is pocketed by people who are not employees of the Ministry of Education. The fact that we don’t talk does not mean we don’t do anything.”
NE: We still have parents in rural areas sending children to urban schools. Has the school system not improved to an extent that the public schools in rural areas and urban areas are offering the same quality of education?
DN: “It is a perception. If you look at the performances, learners in urban areas are outperformed by those in rural areas. I do not see the reason why students should come to urban areas because the performance here is not that impressive. I would really urge people that education is the same. If you look at all these years, rural schools are the ones that have been doing well comparatively speaking. Even here in Khomas, it is always at the bottom of the ladder, but yet they have the best infrastructure and teachers. I want to encourage teachers not to be reluctant to go and teach in rural areas. I want to thank those who remain in rural areas and also parents who are keeping their children there because it’s not true that the best education is only offered in urban areas.”
NE: When government introduced free primary education, there were some challenges such as schools overcharging parents for school development funds (SDFs), and inadequate textbooks. What measures are in place to avoid the repeat of such problems when free secondary education is implemented come 2016?
DN: “This animal called ‘resistance to change’ is real. Whenever you are introducing something new, you always receive a lot of resistance. There were times we declared war against those who did not implement what should be implemented. Some were even dismissed from their employment, but it was finally implemented. We now have experience since it is something we did in the past, we are no more pioneers.”
NE: What is being done to boost vocational education? It is receiving less emphasis, and NSFAF has said it will no longer fund vocational training, as it used to, because of Grade 10 and lower pass grades of Grade 12, of students applying at vocational training centres?Is this not killing the vocational skills base, many of whom are self-employed and employers of this country?
DN: “The introduction of the curriculum review shows we want to remove that perception that when one enrols in vocational centres you are inferior compared to others. It is clear that we as government regard vocational education and training as important to our education system. Equally, it is not true and it will not be done that NSFAF will not fund vocational training, it will not happen. NSFAF is directed to make sure that vocational training students are funded just like university students, because they are also important. We do not want to kill vocational education. Our salvation is in education that is vocational and technically oriented.”
NE: The country currently faces a shortage of about 6 000 teachers, could this be attributed to government’s decision to turn colleges into university campuses.
DN: “Partially yes, we knew there were some challenges and hence we have re-introduced diploma programmes in teaching at Unam to ensure we kill this shortage of teachers. Shortage of teachers by the way is not unique to Namibia, it is all over the world. Therefore, we felt areas such as English, Mathematics, Physics are crucial and we need to recruit teachers on a contract basis from the SADC region and elsewhere. I am not sure if your figure of 6 000 is correct, but we have some shortages of qualified teachers. For those who are already on our payroll, and are prepared to teach we are ready to do in-service training for them until such a time they are qualified. We have motivated Unam to continue training teachers both with the undergraduate programmes and diplomas and I hope this shortage of teachers will be something of the past.”
NE: Education gets the largest chunk of the national cake, yet it fails to yield the desired results. Is funding or lack of human resources to implement tangible education policies the problem?
DN: “Yes, this financial year we received not less than N$13 billion. But I also want to tell you that out of the N$13 billion, only about 6 percent goes for development projects and the biggest chunk goes for operational costs. Yes, we are not denying that the injection of that amount does not correspond with the outcomes from the system. But this could be attributed to the previous curriculum in that the majority of students are not academicaly oriented. So we hope with the new curriculum review, that will be something of the past. Let us also not forget that the new curriculum will be implemented for about 8 to 9 years. By 2022, we will finally introduce our A Level and by then we will really say the education system has changed. Education is a progress and to me it has improved and will continue to improve from time to time.”
NE: Unless the President-elect selects you to be part of his eight non-voting members to parliament, are you going to focus your attention on your university (IUM)?
DN: (laughs) Which university. IUM is a local product for global and local consumption. I was given that opportunity to put the machinery in motion. It does not really mean that when you establish something, then you have to go there. Look, I can do anything and as I said earlier, after 21st March 2015, God will direct, advise and give me wisdom as to how to go about my life. That is something I leave in the hands of the creator.”
NE: During your term as the education minister, the public raised concern about your role as minister while you own a university. Many still feel this could result in conflict of interest, what is your stance on this widely held perception?
DN: “I have been in this office as deputy minister for three years, and a year and ten months as minister and I have not seen that what people are saying as conflict of interest. I served all Namibians and I did not favour anyone. This is not a one-man show, I am aware of people, who are ministers of education and they established and own universities. And they are doing very well, so conflict of interest is not in my system.’’
NE: If you are not selected as part of the presidential appointees, is this the end of Dr David Namwandi’s political journey?
DN: “I was a politician even before I was appointed as a minister, let that be very clear. I never became a politician when I was appointed as minister. I joined Swapo at my own free will many years ago and I remain a Swapo member. As I am talking, I am a Central Committee member of the ruling party. If I am not appointed, how could that be an end to my political career? I have been a politician and I will remain a politician. I will also serve in any capacity that the country, region or world needs me.”