Hofni Ipinge
My research as an educator strongly indicates that the absence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) studies in lower grades (4-7) and in some secondary schools across the country is a disadvantage to our learners, and robs them of much-needed skills and survival tools in this modern world of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), narrowing, in some instances, their employability chances.
The need for the early exposure of our learner community to the 4IR cannot be overemphasised, as evident in speeches of most, if not all, national political leaders. I concur that this notion should be highly adhered to and implemented without any further delay.
As an active, revolutionary and progressive transmitting belt of the mighty Swapo Party, and in particular the wing’s department of education, we call upon the vigorous inclusion of ICT studies in the school curriculum, and the subsequent provision of a laptop on every child’s desk in lieu of the one-child one-laptop mantra.
At secondary school level, I discovered that most of our learners who are unsuccessful in grades 10 or 11 end up in the streets without any practical experience. Most of these learners have to resort to scavenging for jobs in restaurants, hotels, bars and supermarkets, which are all lately operated and administered on automated machines and technological implements for which they lack basic operational knowledge at the time of leaving school.
This status quo has incarcerated a big number of our people in the claws and chains of unemployment due to a lack of computer literacy, while only creating a window of opportunity for those limited few with money who are able to undergo computer courses and obtain a certificate.
Those who proceed to tertiary level are then forced to take up computer lessons as a compulsory subject. I am pleased to indicate that nowadays, institutions of higher learning have improved on this score, and students are expected to apply, study and submit assignments online as well as take quizzes online through using LMS.
Therefore, I maintain that it is high time for our basic education sector to look deeply and frankly into this, and establish a computer lab at every government school in Namibia to enhance ICT education at all levels.
This will boost our learners’ cognitive development and open many doors for the future for many of them after the completion of their basic education phase as far as 4IR is concerned.
Technology is growing every day, and our education system must move with current developments in order to face the current economic challenges within the global village. Namibia is not an island, but a country whose economic growth is hooked, linked and connected to other countries in the world space.
I am calling on the Ministry of Basic Education, Arts and Culture, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and the Ministry of Mines and Energy to coordinate the implementation of computer labs in every school in Namibia as from the primary phase. ICT teachers must leave the streets and get employment to give quality computer education to our children.
We are currently talking about green hydrogen, with the inclusion of chemical renewable energy. How are we going to achieve this goal without importing human resources from other countries to run our industries, while we have our own people who are not empowered in this direction? For how long will our country keep on hiring foreigners to run our industries? The answer is simple, we need to educate our own people for the safety and security of this country as our security is at stake and becoming a threat to our own citizens.
It is my hope that we learn more from negative impacts which emanated from the Covid-19 dark cloud, and recently the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. If not, then we will never learn.
It is time for Namibia to vigorously campaign for economic empowerment practically, not just rhetorically. Unam and NUST are the only big government institutions to turn Namibia into a paradise by giving quality education to our students.
Time has arrived to come out of our comfort zone and think critically on how our natural resources should benefit all Namibians, and develop this country for self-sustainability and self-reliance. We need to start producing our own medicine, we need to think critically of our marine resources through marine science as a subject, global research, engineering in all fields and the blue economy to sustain ourselves and become self-sufficient, depending on our own resources that are our gifts of nature from God.
We need to cut more of our imports and start producing our own goods to feed our own people, and for employment purposes. We need to produce our own expertise in different areas of needs, and cut on foreign hiring as this will save the last dollar we have as well. We need to expand our industries to accommodate our unemployed graduates, we need to vigorously address inequality, and enable the equal distribution of our natural resources to alleviate poverty in our land.
The newly-revised curriculum for basic education will come at a cost. Teachers need to be trained, materials need to be developed, and laboratories need to be furnished with teaching and learning resources. More blocs of classrooms are also needed. Therefore, there is a need to plan prudently so that we ensure the limited financial resources we have cater for the fore-listed needs.
Our children want a future that is promising. One critical thing that we are calling for is the protection of infant industries to enable local entrepreneurs to flourish. We propose that support should be given to young entrepreneurs to manufacture chairs, tables, school uniforms, chalks and other education resources. These, we believe, could swell entrepreneurial acumen in many young people.