Paheja Siririka
The University of Namibia (Unam) says the institution sees no contradiction between its stance and that of the ministry of education when it comes to the admission of grade 11 learners for the current academic year.
Unam vice chancellor Kenneth Matengu clarified yesterday the Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary (NSSCO) for grade 11 is ranked as a level three qualification and for grade 12 Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate-Advanced Subsidiary (NSSC-AS) at level four, while Unam’s entry requirement is level five.
Hence, they are unable to accommodate level three qualifications. “For 2021, Unam has admitted 6 954 grade 12 learners from an application pool of 46 000. We do not have space for level three qualification. We do not wish to compete with basic education for the top students it needs to progress to AS, which we will need once they have completed AS. After all, our learners will be able to enter university anywhere in the world with AS,” explained Matengu.
Logically, he said, this prompted Unam to align its curricula and offering with the aims, objectives and principles of the reform.
“Consequently, a major curriculum transformation process has been undertaken, where programmes are re-invented to enable the production of human resources, armed with co-competencies required for the transformation of Namibia into a knowledge-based as well as in employment creation. We are, therefore, ready to enrol learners coming with a combination of NSSCO and NSSC-AS subjects in 2022 when the first cohort of NSSC-AS will have completed their basic education,” Matengu explained further.
Unlike Unam, the Namibia University of Science and Technology said on its website that it has received all grade 11 and 12 results from the line ministry and will break it down per faculty for all learners who applied to study there.
“The respective faculties will do final selection based on learners’ final results and in line with the admission requirements for each study programme as specified in the Guide for Prospective Students available on the NUST website. The NUST admission point scale for grade 11 and 12 applicants, as approved by the University Senate, is included in the Guide for Prospective Students,” read the statement.
The International University of Management spokesperson Gerry Munyama last week said he doesn’t understand why there is a commotion on the admission of grade 11.
“The review of the curriculum is informed by the national conference on education that took place nine years ago. The primary aim of the conference was to identify deficiencies in the Namibian education system and the aim of developing an appropriate remedial action plan. Grade 11s and 12s last year wrote the same national senior secondary certificate; the only difference is the ordinary and higher level,” Munyama was quoted as saying on Eagle FM.
He said, although IUM is a private institution, it does not operate in a vacuum and it is guided by Namibian laws and directives.
He further stated IUM shall not discriminate against any NSSC graduate application based on grade 11 or 12. “To us, they are cooked in the same pot and we will only look at two criteria: one – which is whether the grade 11 or 12 applicant has completed his/her senior secondary school certificate, and that the applicant has met the institution’s requirements for the qualification that he/she has applied for. Admission requirements vary from qualification to qualification,” stated Munyama.