The Namibian education system continues to face many challenges, including a lack of material, infrastructure and qualified teachers. 

New Era senior journalist Albertina Nakale engaged the education ministry executive director, Sanet Steenkamp on some of the burning issues within the education system.

NE: How has government been able to respond effectively to these pressing challenges to ensure equitable and quality education in Namibia? 

SS: The ministry follows the medium-term expenditure framework, which also guides the budgetary process. At the required time, all cost drivers and their multipliers per regional data are collected and considered for the respective allocations. This has enabled the ministry of education to achieve notable strides in providing accessible equitable, inclusive, and quality education in Namibia, including the need for providing a conducive learning environment.  

The latter is done through school infrastructure development projects for the increasing learner population, which, for example, stood in the year 2015 at 675 405 learners, taught by 27 990 teachers in 1 783 schools with 23 432 classrooms compared to the 822 574 learners and 30 995 teachers in 1 947 schools and 26 090 classrooms in 2021. When you analyse this growth rate, you will see that the learner number growth was twice as high over these years compared to the growth of teachers and classrooms; this clearly shows you that the ministry is doing more with less. The necessity to economise in education is often in conflict with aspirations to meet the aspired standards and quality at all levels. 

NE: Has the whole new curriculum been rolled out and implemented, and if not, which other phases are yet to be implemented and when? 

SS: The introduction of the revised curriculum implementation has matured over the past seven years. It started with the implementation of junior primary (pre-primary, grade 1 to 3) in 2015 and was completed with the first-ever round of implementation of AS level (grade 12) in 2021.

NE: Namibia has one of the most unequal school systems. For example, learners in the top 20 schools achieve more distinctions compared to learners in the next 1 723 schools combined. How can the playing field be levelled?

SS: The school system in the country is uniform. It remains the same across all schools registered with the ministry. However, school needs and circumstances differ due to a number of factors, be these natural or geographical, social, cultural, or economic. Many schools in the remote areas of the country are disadvantaged due to underdeveloped school infrastructure in comparison to urban schools or the inability to attract qualified teachers. This will subsequently influence the disparity in the learner performance countrywide. 

We can state that over time, the “playing field” can be improved. However, it requires robust investment in school infrastructural development and increased stakeholder partnership at all levels. One way to attain this could be by improving the working conditions and teaching environment in rural schools, for example, construction of decent teachers’ accommodation and electrification of schools in rural areas to attract qualified teachers. 

There is a need to introduce ICT solutions and blended learning in all schools to facilitate access to e-learning opportunities, which requires better ICT infrastructure and tools.  

NE: The question on many people’s lips is whether free education in Namibia is indeed a reality? What effect did the removal of school development funds have on learners and schools to fully realise quality and fair education?  

SS: There are diverse interpretations of what “free education” means in a Namibian context. In 2010, a study revealed it is critical that the then customary practice raise funds in the form of school fees from parents and guardians became a barrier to access to education. Inability to make payment and the fear of humiliation often lead to school drop-out or “out of school youth”, which stood at that time close to a third of all in the school-going age bracket. 

It was logical for the ministry in its aspiration to broaden access to school, irrespective of socio-economic circumstances of households, hence the abolishment of compulsory contribution to the school development fund. Instead, it was agreed to compensate the schools with a school grant allocation to continue enriching teaching and learning at school and supporting the overall school administration and management of school activities for learners. Some schools, located in lower-income communities, benefit positively from this introduced universal primary or universal secondary education grant to fund their school activities than before.

However, the removal of this compulsory contribution to the school development fund created an impression that parents and guardians are no longer responsible to support the school and their learners on a voluntary basis. Often this apathy towards what happens at school creates strain on limited funds obtained through these universal school grants.

The ambition to improve the quality of education delivery at schools is a shared responsibility. If parents who could afford voluntary contributions are not willing to support their school, it will have a negative effect on the schools. This lack of ownership for the school will essentially mean that moral support and guidance from parents will also decline, leaving only teachers to take responsibility for learners.

NE: What is the government’s plan to ensure vocational education is taken seriously from the foundation levels to give learners the necessary conditions for success? 

SS: Basic education curriculum offers pre-vocational and technical subjects from grades 5 to 11, NSSCO level, and a few also at AS level. It should be noted that the term ‘vocational’ refers to post-basic education-that is to say trade qualifications offered in vocational training centres are registered with Namibia Training Authority (NTA). The following prevocational subjects are offered in the senior primary phase (grades 5-7): elementary agriculture, design and technology, and home ecology.

Among all vocational subjects, the technical subjects are offered in a few secondary schools. The ministry is working with Unam and NSFAF to prioritise and increase the number of teachers trained in those subjects. This will facilitate the expansion of these subjects to many schools and regions. However, technical subjects require investment in workshops and equipment, as well as sustenance in terms of cost for consumables.

Overall, prevocational subjects are covered in many primary schools. Learners following the prevocational subjects can progress to VTCs and universities. Even learners who followed the academic stream can qualify for VTCs using Mathematics and English subjects which were improved in terms of quality, and compulsory, even though they will not get subject credit for some modules to start on a different level compared to those who did prevocational technical subjects in schools.

NE: We have seen incidences of learners carrying weapons, including firearms to schools or ending up using them recklessly. What is the government doing to ensure school grounds remain safe for learners to study without any fear or violence?

SS: Violence of any kind or form is intolerable and unacceptable in Namibian schools, therefore, it is a serious offence for any person to take any kind of weapon into a school ground as it could have potentially fatal consequences. 

The ministry of education has legal frameworks in place; such as the National Safe Schools Framework and the school codes of conduct, which are in line with the Constitution and the Education Act. 

These are all aimed at averting violence at schools and providing guidance regarding safety on school grounds.   

All school management and school boards are expected to ensure their schools are safe. 

The carrying of weapons on school grounds contravenes the law and school rules and school leaderships ought to know how to address violence involving weapons at schools. 

Similarly, schools are expected to address the broad issue of violence in the schools as well as the community.  

NE: Unplanned pregnancies and alcohol abuse are big problems among teenagers. What is being done to address these high rates of teenage pregnancies?

SS: The ministry of education established the Prevention and Management of Learner Pregnancy Policy with the main focus on preventing pregnancy among school girls. The policy provides guidelines to strengthen the life skills curriculum in schools with a strong emphasis on prevention as well as the teaching of life skills education by trained teachers. It also gave provision for permission of health professionals and school counsellors in schools to provide training and regular information sharing on reproductive health topics, the teaching of integrated health education and Life Skills to all learners from grade four or at an appropriate age. 

It also gives provision for the referral of pregnant learners especially the orphans and vulnerable to social workers at the ministry responsible for child welfare, for them to obtain relevant information on childcare and legal obligation. Although the policy emphasises the prevention of pregnancy among learners, it also caters to counselling for learners who fell pregnant to ensure they return to school after giving birth.