Albertina Nakale Windhoek-The Minister of Education, Arts and Culture Katrina Hanse-Himarwa has announced that out of 22,091 full-time candidates who registered for Grade 12 Ordinary Level in 2017, about 8,632 students qualified for tertiary education. In 2016 the percentage stood at 36.8 percent, representing 7,772 candidates who had qualified for university. She said the class of 2017 improved on the fifth National Developmental Plan (NDP5)’s baseline of 36 percent – at 39.3 percent (8,632) but missed the target of 40 percent with only 0.7 percent for the candidates who met the requirement for admission to institutions of higher learning. “The ultimate aim of any secondary education graduate is to enter institutions of higher learning to qualify in the field of his or her interest. Regrettably though, as it is in many other spheres of life, we do not always make it with the first attempt, and it is no different with some of our candidates who did not obtain the required points for admission to further their studies at institutions of higher learning,” the minister noted. During the 2017 academic year, a total of 56,305 candidates comprising of 22,091 full-time and 34,214 part-time learners registered for the Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate at 188 full-time and 129 part-time examination centres nationally. She said the Grade 12 Ordinary Level candidates increased by 9.3 percent from 51,527 to 56,305, which is 4,778 candidates more than 2016. Further, she said, from the total of 34,214 part-time candidates, 29,181 were registered with the Namibian College of Open Learning (Namcol) which equates to 85.3 percent of the total part-time candidates, while the rest were catered for by other private institutions registered with the education ministry. According to her, out of 22,091 full-time candidates who registered for Grade 12 Ordinary Level in 2017, 93.7 percent of the entries were graded compared to 93.3 percent in 2016; and this shows an increase of 0.4 percent of the graded entries. Moreover, she maintained that of the 34,214 part-time candidates registered for the examinations, 81.1 percent of the subject entries were graded in 2017 when compared to 78.5 percent in 2016. “This shows an increase of 2.6 percent, again a positive achievement as far as the graded subject entries for part-time candidates are concerned,” she said. She reported that seven regions exceeded the national average performance at Grade D and above in English (//Kharas, Hardap, Khomas, Omaheke, Erongo, Kunene and Kavango East); while only five regions exceeded the national average performance in mathematics (Ohangwena, Omusati, Oshikoto, Khomas and Oshana). Furthermore, six regions out-performed national performance in the remaining subjects. “It is high time we start moving away from this mediocrity and start to look at our contributions towards the above regional performances. Notwithstanding the challenges facing us, this way of reporting is clearly talking to the individual subject teachers, and all stakeholders that render support in the specific subject area, to compare their regional performances against the national performance,” she urged. She called on the regional education directorates to zoom further into their individual school results and twin up teachers, schools or even regions in subject areas for collaboration to facilitate improvement. She said several alternative learning opportunities are presented to candidates who did qualify for university nationally to improve their subject grades on a part-time basis. This can be done by joining skills training centres through the Namibia Training Authority (NTA), joining the job market as well as becoming entrepreneurs to be self-employed.
New Era Reporter
2018-01-11 08:52:54 10 months ago
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