WINDHOEK – The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) says a lack of forward planning and an inability to implement the new high school curriculum by the ministry of education are among the factors underlining the chaos that engulfed schools and learners at the start of the 2020 school year.
Similar sentiments were also raised by the Namibia National Teachers’ Union (Nantu) who feels the education ministry failed to put various measures in place before the curriculum implementation.
“If one considers that this brainchild of former minister of education Dr David Namwandi was already introduced into our schools in 2015 (upper primary phase). It is inexplicable why the ministry decided to abruptly terminate the old curriculum at the end of 2018, leaving thousands of Grade 10 learners to fail their grade and then find themselves in limbo with literally no choices when it came to getting to Grade 12,” PDM treasurer-general Nico Smit said.
Meanwhile, Nantu secretary-general Loide Shaanika says while the review of the curriculum is always essential to incorporate changes that may have occurred after the curriculum was introduced, the ministry of education could have put various measures in place before the implementation. She suggested these measures are policy initiatives, development of the new syllabus, and provision of in-service training and continuous professional development programmes to teachers.
“The development of support systems, readiness of the current infrastructures was essential to ensure the successful implementation of the new curriculum,” Shaanika maintained. According to her, all these measures were not properly addressed and thus had a negative impact on the effectiveness of the curriculum.
Nantu carried out a research on the implementation of the revised curriculum last year October. The research was conducted in 171 schools from all the regions. The research gathered primary data at the three levels in the education system in Namibia in order to provide a formative feedback on the experiences of teachers during the curriculum revision and implementation at Grade 0-3, 4-7, and junior secondary school at Grade 8-9.