The education minister, Anna Nghipondoka, has encouraged learners who last year sat for the revised Namibian Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary (NSSCO) level and who qualify for admission for the advanced subsidiary (AS) to proceed to that level.
According to Nghipondoka, this option could present endless opportunities at local institutions of high learning as well as abroad.
Approximately 7 518 learners out of 21 648 of the revised NSSCO qualify for NSSC-AS compared to an estimated 2 000 learners who registered three or more subjects on NSSC (high level) in the old curriculum previous years.
“This is a remarkable performance of the revised system although, under Covid-19 pandemic environment, it is four times higher than previously. Resources were spent on induction training of teachers, development, and procurement of learners’ textbooks and teachers’ guides for all subjects,” she noted.
The minister also clarified the confusion surrounding learners who passed grade 11 last year but higher institutions of learning do not want to accept them as they don’t meet the minimum requirements for offered courses.
She said all institutions of higher learning agreed during the proceeding consultations that the old and the revised NSSCO curriculum is the same in terms of quality and assessment demand.
“These institutions such as the Namibia University of Science and Technology have degree study programmes and offered a successful access course to receive the NSSCO grade 11 learners, with good grades,” she stressed.
Furthermore, Nghipondoka said, the University of Namibia and the International University of Management still have certificate and diploma courses that can be accessed through NSSCO.
According to her, the essence is to improve both the basic as well as the higher education in providing human resources such as competent teachers, engineers.
Moreover, she explained, the old system with the grade 10 caused a larger number of learners to exit at the end of the junior secondary phase with weak or without the junior secondaary certificate, while the revised curriculum keeps in the education system.
The implementation of the revised curriculum was approved by Cabinet during the education conference in 2011 and that curriculum review processes are part of every education system to remain current with the development needs of the country.
The ministry started with the implementation of the revised curriculum in 2015 with junior primary (pre-primary, grades 1-3), followed by senior primary (grade 4-7) in 2016.
During 2017 and 2018, junior secondary grades 8-9 were implemented and in 2019/2020, senior secondary NSSCO, grades 10-11 followed by 2021 NSSC-AS (grade 12).
– anakale@nepc.com.na