2017-01-13Staff Report 2 Windhoek - The Namibia National Teachers’ Union (Nantu) and the Teachers’ Union of Namibia (TUN) are concerned that the 2016 Grade 12 ordinary level results have not produced the desired outcome. Minister of Education, Arts and Culture Katrina Hanse-Himarwa on Wednesday announced that out of 21 104 full-time students who registered for Grade 12 ordinary level in 2016, 93.3 percent were graded, compared to 92.9 percent in 2015, indicating an increase of 0.4 percent of the graded entries. However, Nantu secretary general Basilius Haingura says the nation cannot pride itself on having achieved a 0.4 percent increase. “In fact, when you’re talking about 0.4 percent, we can’t really say we’ve improved,” he observed. “It’s not what everyone should be proud of. We lack support services, monitoring and evaluation,” he said on Wednesday when asked for his views on the recently released Grade 12 results. Based on the performance of the 2016 ordinary level Grade 12 candidates, the minister announced on Wednesday that 7 772 (36.8 percent) students qualified for admission to tertiary institutions compared to 6 056 (29.8 percent) learners in 2015, excluding part-time candidates. Haingura said school management teams should know what type of assessment is offered to learners throughout the year, adding that schools should match their assessments with the national examinations, so as to better prepare for the exams. Haingura noted that if school management fails to do so, no improvement should be expected in this regard. Further, he said the issue of discipline is crucial to success and improved academic performance. “The moment the school has discipline, starting from the child to the teacher, then we expect good results at the end of the day. When we talk about education, we expect each and every stakeholder to play their part. “We have too much democracy in our system. Kids are having their own democracy. You can’t say: ‘Why didn’t you do your homework?’ Those are the issues, but sometimes we need to follow instructions and order to get good results at the end of the day,” he noted. When asked about the two-day teachers’ strike that interrupted national exams, he said, “In fact, as for the two-day interruption… we were committed throughout the year. Even the Grade 10, as well as Grade 12, results did not reduce. “This is an indication that people were committed throughout. They were expecting that maybe the results for those subjects will reduce, but it’s not the case.” TUN secretary general Mahongora Kavihuha yesterday also said as a union they are not quite satisfied with the results. “Yes, there is improvement looking at results from 54 percent to 55.7 percent for Grade 10 and moving the percentage of those who qualified for tertiary institutions from 29.8 percent to 36.8 percent for Grade 12. “But those are small improvements. However, when you look overall performance, we are far from reaching there. We are not happy with the results,” he said. Regarding last year’s two-day strike, Kavihuha, who is also a teacher, applauded the strike, saying it caused some improvement in the results. He said the overall performance of the system has flatlined, such as keeping the promotional points to Grade 11 at 23 points for the past 16 years or so, while the envisaged number of promotional points needed was initially set at 27 points. Haingura envisages that 2017 will be a good year academically. He said he would soon address his members on matters that were not finalised last year and to put new issues on the agenda. 2017-01-13Staff Report 2
