Unions Must Do Homework

I WOULD like to caution union members or representatives to adopt a culture of studying documents or doing proper research before issuing statements to the media.

Recently the representative of TUN had to issue an apology to the University of Cambridge for giving incorrect information to the public that the Cambridge system that is used in Namibia has been thrown out of Britain, which is not true, hence the apology. I suggest that union representatives, including Nanso, should study educational documents carefully if they are to contribute to the envisaged education conference that might take place in Namibia.I am not even sure whether some of these people are familiar with the broad curriculum documents, let alone the syllabi that have been localised recently.If one reads these documents with understanding one cannot blame learners’ failure on the system but rather on those who are supposed to implement what the documents require.Hence you would find out that school x has done well while school y has performed dismally.All this comes back to the human resources and facilities available in various schools in Namibia.If the Cambridge system is weak then learners should pass because it is not challenging, as was alleged.Alternatively, all schools can opt for HIGCSE which is more challenging.At the moment it is unfortunate that some educational regions don’t even have schools that offer subjects at this higher level.But we should also note that schools have to cater for mixed abilities.I hope our leaders will start to familiarise themselves with important national documents before they opt for simple political statements that they later have to apologise for.We must have a culture of reading if we are to analyse documents, let alone understand them.And we should know what different Government directorates are supposed to do.Mediva Menaletu WindhoekI suggest that union representatives, including Nanso, should study educational documents carefully if they are to contribute to the envisaged education conference that might take place in Namibia.I am not even sure whether some of these people are familiar with the broad curriculum documents, let alone the syllabi that have been localised recently.If one reads these documents with understanding one cannot blame learners’ failure on the system but rather on those who are supposed to implement what the documents require.Hence you would find out that school x has done well while school y has performed dismally.All this comes back to the human resources and facilities available in various schools in Namibia.If the Cambridge system is weak then learners should pass because it is not challenging, as was alleged.Alternatively, all schools can opt for HIGCSE which is more challenging.At the moment it is unfortunate that some educational regions don’t even have schools that offer subjects at this higher level.But we should also note that schools have to cater for mixed abilities.I hope our leaders will start to familiarise themselves with important national documents before they opt for simple political statements that they later have to apologise for.We must have a culture of reading if we are to analyse documents, let alone understand them.And we should know what different Government directorates are supposed to do.Mediva Menaletu Windhoek