2018-01-10Staff Report 2 Nuusita Ashipala Ongwediva-Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) secretary for education Hofni Iipinge has called on the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture to allow all Grade 10 learners who scored between 20 and 22 points to repeat fulltime classes. Iipinge further urged the ministry to allow learners from poor families that cannot afford to enrol them at Namcol to also repeat as full-timers. However, the ministry’s permanent secretary Sanet Steenkamp said Iipinge’s call is already part of the ministry’s policy - provided there is space to accommodate repeaters. “The stance of the ministry as pronounced by the minister when she announced the results is very clear. We have a policy which says, provided that there is space in schools, we will look at the number of the learners that need to repeat and see if they can be accommodated,” Steenkamp told New Era yesterday. This year 53 332 learners sat for the Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) examination, including 12 733 part-time learners. From the learners who sat for the JSC examination, only 22 462 full-time learners made it to Grade 11. Over 18 000 full-time learners did not make it. Iipinge – elected to the SPYL position after the league’s congress in Katima Mulilo late last year - further called on Vocational Training Centres (VTC) to also reduce their admission points from 23 to at least 20 points. The SPYL secretary for education said the reduction of points will allow more learners to enrol for vocational trades. As school is expected to commence today, Iipinge called on parents and learners to remain calm as they seek for spaces at both schools and hostels. “I know government is working out all the logistics through the education directors’ offices to make sure that every Namibian child is taken care of and given quality education as stipulated in Article 20 of the Namibian constitution,” said Iipinge. He encouraged teachers and learners to work hard so that better results can be yielded in 2018. “Let us all work together, educators, parents, learners and stakeholders so that together we educate the Namibian child in order for the country to develop economically,” said Iipinge. 2018-01-10Staff Report 2
