KEETMANSHOOP – A legislative drafting consultant said one of the objectives of the new Basic Education Act of 2020 is to incorporate the new dynamics of the e-learning policy.
Gabriel Nepaya said this during a recent advocacy workshop in Keetmanshoop, discussing regulations and introducing the new act to stakeholders.
“The inputs of various stakeholders in the education sector delivered today will assist the Minister of Education, Arts and Culture to finalise the draft regulations and give notice in the government Gazette for the operationalisation of the act and its regulations’’ he said.
Nepaya said the act would furthermore provide for the principal of adhering to a child’s right to education. When explaining the difference between the previous Education Act of 2001 and the current act, he emphasised that the previous act was enacted to fit to the conditions of living then, while the new Basic Education Act was drafted specifically to make provision for the new normal of Information Communication Technology.
“The world has evolved into the era of the fourth industrial revolution, whereby it deals with the internet and social media, hence the need to replace the old act, as education must also adapt to new global changes,’’ said the legal drafter.
Nepaya also said it is only through these changes that the education sector in the country can stay relevant to that of the rest of the world.
He continued that, being the drafter of the old Education Act (2001), it became so much easier for him to draft the new regulations.
“I am merely reflecting on my contribution towards the old act,’’ he explained.
One of the participants, Selma Nakanyala, the inspector of the !Garib Circuit, said she wants insight of the new Basic Education Act: changes that were brought in, compared to the previous act, and also areas that have been omitted.
“As we learned today, it was omitted by drafters of the new act to include penalties for someone transgressing some of the regulations in the act,’’ she explained.
The education leader also said she would share the knowledge gained from the workshop with teachers and stakeholders in her circuit.
“It is rather important that we, as different stakeholders in the education fraternity, be on the same level of understanding applicable laws and regulations,’’ she added.
Meanwhile, Enslin Apollus, a Grade 11 learner and member of the learners’ representative council (LRC) at Keetmanshoop Secondary School, said it is a first time for him to learn about an education act.
“The aim of my presence here is to gain knowledge and, in return, share it with my fellow learners,’’ he said.
Apollus also said he wants to learn why there are education laws and how it impacts learners.
He said he hopes this message will be spread to all fellow learners in Namibia.
The workshop was the first of its kind in the //Kharas region and will now be extended to the rest of the country.