Education – The Dilemma our children face

THE OLD sages said: “Longa aamwoye manga unomuenjo inothegerera yeye yalongwe kaathithi.” It simply means: “Teach the young ones what they have to know now when there is still time. Don’t wait for the ancestors to come back to do it for you, because they will never return.”

A repeat performance of last year’s and the previous year’s hopeless Grade 10 results, will certainly come to haunt us for many years to come. Fourteen years down the line, the education authorities do not seem to be capable as yet, to, as the Afrikaners say, “die ding onder die knie te kry,” meaning “to really get to grips with the new system”.Over 15 000 Grade 10 children have failed the 2003 examinations.One can just imagine what is taking place in the homes of these unfortunate children.Sadness, recriminations, apportioning blame, name calling, arguments and perhaps even threats in certain homes.Who takes the blame for this recurring disaster that distracts the nation from focussing on other more pressing issues? Every year, school children are left with the bitter taste of gall come Christmas.And their numbers are soaring year in and year out.The Basic Education Ministry brushes it off with, “This year’s results show a marked improvement”….etc, etc, etc,. or words to that effect.I remember a period in the past when Standard 6 (now Gr.8) was the cut-off point for children facing the future – not Standard 8 (Gr.10) as it is today.The Std. VI examination of yesteryear was external with very high standards demanded of children who made it to this class.Some of the hard-working teachers of the sixties and seventies who are still alive man important positions in the Ministries of education in Namibia.They will remember that a Standard 6 teacher never enjoyed the easy life of today, but slept with the proverbial “one eye”.Parents expected results at the end of each year and there was no excuse when children failed.Competition was rife between the various schools.In those days, books were free, and children were supplied with everything from ballpoints to mathematical sets – teachers merely ordered what they needed.Education was completely free even under colonial rule.We do not want to go into the politics of the period of course.Today, Grade 10 does not seem to be taken as a serious external examination by either our teachers or their pupils.At least that is the impression every education-loving parent gets.Children just fail, and by the thousands, and then go home to try it by correspondence through NAMCOL.For heaven’s sake! Who thinks that a student, who fails an examination while getting it daily straight from the horse’s mouth in the classroom, can pass by correspondence? Something is definitely wrong here.How many children have failed Grade 10 during the last five years – forty, fifty, sixty, seventy thousand? Education is a culture sought by everyone desirous of a life of happiness, decency and prosperity.Lack of it spells disaster, poverty and ignorance, a life of crime, violence and death and imprisonment.Unfortunately, we cannot say that what we see happening in our schools today is what we have always hoped for.To the contrary, parents and children are now up in arms because of what they see as a total about-turn in education, a reversal of trends.And, as is usually the case in such situations, it is difficult to point a finger at the culprit.Who is to blame for this disaster? Minister John Mutorwa is known to be a hard-working man.He is a teacher by profession himself and is ever on the move across the country to see things for himself.But as things stand for the Grade 10’s, the Minister does not seem to be achieving much.To the contrary, children keep on failing at an alarming rate each year.Teachers stick to their guns that they are doing a good job and the authorities in Windhoek are satisfied that a good job is being done, or are they? There should be inspectors going out to keep teachers on their toes at all times, and see to it that they deserve their salaries.Teachers must be made aware of the fact that teachers in neighbouring African countries do not earn what teachers earn here.Well, if these teachers with high salaries are not regularly supervised and checked, then surely we have no hope in hell that education in Namibia will ever be better than the Cape Education System which was rejected at Independence.Poor performance in Education can be ascribed to the following:LACK OF PRODUCTIVITY ON THE PART OF TEACHERS:1. Teachers who do not take their work seriously, and spend their time running their own businesses.2. Teachers who lack classroom skills because they are either poorly trained, or simply unqualified.3. Teachers who see the profession simply as a job, a way to earn a salary.4. The medium of instruction: Fourteen years after independence, most teachers cannot yet think in English.Afrikaans is still strongly in their veins.Who can blame them anyway? Some of our teachers have Afrikaans as their home language.5. Automatic promotions: these do not motivate children to develop a spirit of competition in school.The present system guarantees every child that at the end of the day, he/she will pass and go to a higher grade – hard work or not.It’s all a question of standards.If the Ministry of Basic Education does not set standards in education, then they must not talk about the high number of children admitted to school after Independence.High standards in education can only deliver high quality people.6. The over-hasty introduction of a new education system by politicians, without first carefully working out strategies and time frames for implementation to ensure success.It is not the system that reforms, but the people who must implement it through hard work and self-sacrifice.7. The so-called colonial syndrome: To undo this decades-old conditioning, does not require emotional political decisions taken haphazardly, but a painstaking process of at least twenty-five years (or a whole generation).During such a process, new schools are built, students are sent for training outside the country.8. Parents/teachers Committees, School Committees, School Boards: If these bodies are just created without a serious aim in mind, they will achieve nothing.If their powers, functions, responsibilities and a whole range of interests are not even known to those who serve on them, then we are moving deeper into a quagmire of ignorance.THE CHILD IS NO LONGER THE CENTRE OF EDUCATION:Instead it is the teacher whose rights must be protected at all costs.Some teachers enjoy themselves and have a good time at the expense of the children.1. Lack of motivation of children: Drugs, liquor, sex and discos are the results of very poor motivation on the part of young children.2. As most black parents never had the opportunity to go to school, it is very difficult for them to focus on the key elements that should be addressed in order to motivate their kids to greater heights.3. Many teachers do not read much and so cannot always give their learners more than just the humdrum presentation of lessons, following textbooks slavishly and applying boring teaching methods.A good teacher does not regard children as mere cups of tea that must be filled.LACK OF OPPORTUNITIES:Are all the children in our schools being told by their teachers what beautiful opportunities await them outside there once they have completed their education? I think not:1. In many instances children are made to hate school and take to the streets.If little children see what is happening in some high schools and universities, where the main purpose of some students is merely to have fun, then small children will lose interest in learning.2. To compound this problem, the school curriculum does not make provision for practical subjects such as woodwork, metal work, etc.This could stand the weaker students in good stead when they look for work after failing Grade 10.HEAVY BACKLOG OF CLASSROOM ACCOMMODATION:1. Every year there are new arrivals on the social scene – the Grade Ones.It is not an exaggeration to state that new Primary Schools are required every year.At the rate of += 30 000 new children coming into the system yearly, and a Primary School holding about six hundred children, we are talking about at least 50 schools needed.This number will of course be reduced, as classrooms will be vacated by children promoted to other Grades, or leaving school.2. And new Primary Schools call for new Secondary Schools.A hundred million N$ can build thirty-three Primary Schools or twenty Secondary Schools.3. It is quite clear that the current crop of teachers in our schools includes a high percentage of teachers who are not capable of teaching young children.This needs a training/retraining programme.PARENTS ALSO NEED RE-EDUCATION:The more they are called on to participate in school activities the better.School Committees must be educated to know their responsibilities.Years ago, we built mud and grass bush schools in the Caprivi Region with parents who were illiterate but more than motivated to send their children to school.Some of the children of that time are employed in the various ministries of the Namibian Government right now.UNIVERSITY EDUCATION:Even at the height of the apartheid era, never did we in South West Africa (Namibia today) hear the apartheid Government in Pretoria give an order that students from this country were not allowed in South Africa.The borders were open and students went down freely to universities from Cape Town to the University of the North, to study.The lucky ones went down on free bursaries and scholarships.Children entering the world of knowledge need a much broader spectrum, wider horizons and sky-high opportunities to develop.While it is a good idea to have a university in Namibia, universities are available across the border.Namibia should instead strive to strengthen its Primary and Secondary sectors.We have a university on top of the pyramid with weak links to the base.That is why high officials in Government send their children across the border to study in South Africa.It is the most advanced country in Sub-Saharan Africa.To be fair to Namibian children who were for decades ruled from Pretoria, the government of President Mbeki should seriously consider having Namibian students second on the priority list of admissions after the children of South Africa, for at least twenty-five years.OUTSIDE TALENT:I propose a serious recruitment drive for qualified personnel in SADC countries.The governments of the SADC countries know why Namibia has so many problems in education, and they should be able to help.There are thousands of qualified teachers in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Lesotho.The MBEC should recruit at least three to five thousand of these teachers and contract them for at least five years.During their term of contract, our best Grade XII students should be selected and sent to training institutions in SADC countries for a four-year teachers training programme.The clock is ticking – waiting for us to make our hay while the sun still shines.Procrastinating will help us reap the fruits of failure as elsewhere in the world in general, and Africa in particular viz., demonstrations, toyi-toying, violence, boycotts and all the unholy occupations of an unemployed citizenry.Andrew Matjila WindhoekFourteen years down the line, the education authorities do not seem to be capable as yet, to, as the Afrikaners say, “die ding onder die knie te kry,” meaning “to really get to grips with the new system”.Over 15 000 Grade 10 children have failed the 2003 examinations.One can just imagine what is taking place in the homes of these unfortunate children.Sadness, recriminations, apportioning blame, name calling, arguments and perhaps even threats in certain homes.Who takes the blame for this recurring disaster that distracts the nation from focussing on other more pressing issues? Every year, school children are left with the bitter taste of gall come Christmas.And their numbers are soaring year in and year out.The Basic Education Ministry brushes it off with, “This year’s results show a marked improvement”….etc, etc, etc,. or words to that effect.I remember a period in the past when Standard 6 (now Gr.8) was the cut-off point for children facing the future – not Standard 8 (Gr.10) as it is today.The Std. VI examination of yesteryear was external with very high standards demanded of children who made it to this class.Some of the hard-working teachers of the sixties and seventies who are still alive man important positions in the Ministries of education in Namibia.They will remember that a Standard 6 teacher never enjoyed the easy life of today, but slept with the proverbial “one eye”.Parents expected results at the end of each year and there was no excuse when children failed.Competition was rife between the various schools.In those days, books were free, and children were supplied with everything from ballpoints to mathematical sets – teachers merely ordered what they needed.Education was completely free even under colonial rule.We do not want to go into the politics of the period of course.Today, Grade 10 does not seem to be taken as a serious external examination by either our teachers or their pupils.At least that is the impression every education-loving parent gets.Children just fail, and by the thousands, and then go home to try it by correspondence through NAMCOL.For heaven’s sake! Who thinks that a student, who fails an examination while getting it daily straight from the horse’s mouth in the classroom, can pass by correspondence? Something is definitely wrong here.How many children have failed Grade 10 during the last five years – forty, fifty, sixty, seventy thousand? Education is a culture sought by everyone desirous of a life of happiness, decency and prosperity.Lack of it spells disaster, poverty and ignorance, a life of crime, violence and death and imprisonment.Unfortunately, we cannot say that what we see happening in our schools today is what we have always hoped for.To the contrary, parents and children are now up in arms because of what they see as a total about-turn in education, a reversal of trends.And, as is usually the case in such situations, it is difficult to point a finger at the culprit.Who is to blame for this disaster? Minister John Mutorwa is known to be a hard-working man.He is a teacher by profession himself and is ever on the move across the country to see things for himself.But as things stand for the Grade 10’s, the Minister does not seem to be achieving much.To the contrary, children keep on failing at an alarming rate each year.Teachers stick to their guns that they are doing a good job and the authorities in Windhoek are satisfied that a good job is being done, or are they? There should be inspectors going out to keep teachers on their toes at all times, and see to it that they deserve their salaries.Teachers must be made aware of the fact that teachers in neighbouring African countries do not earn what teachers earn here.Well, if these teachers with high salaries are not regularly supervised and checked, then surely we have no hope in hell that education in Namibia will ever be better than the Cape Education System which was rejected at Independence.Poor performance in Education can be ascribed to the following:LACK OF PRODUCTIVITY ON THE PART OF TEACHERS:1. Teachers who do not take their work seriously, and spend their time running their own businesses.2. Teachers who lack classroom skills because they are either poorly trained, or simply unqualified.3. Teachers who see the profession simply as a job, a way to earn a salary.4. The medium of instruction: Fourteen years after independence, most teachers cannot yet think in English.Afrikaans is still strongly in their veins.Who can blame them anyway? Some of our teachers have Afrikaans as their home language.5. Automatic promotions: these do not motivate children to develop a spirit of competition in school.The present system guarantees every child that at the end of the day, he/she will pass and go to a higher grade – hard work or not.It’s all a question of standards.If the Ministry of Basic Education does not set standards in education, then they must not talk about the high number of children admitted to school after Independence.High standards in education can only deliver high quality people.6. The over-hasty introduction of a new education system by politicians, without first carefully working out strategies and time frames for implementation to ensure success.It is not the system that reforms, but the people who must implement it through hard work and self-sacrifice.7. The so-called colonial syndrome: To undo this decades-old conditioning, does not require emotional political decisions taken haphazardly, but a painstaking process of at least twenty-five years (or a whole generation).During such a process, new schools are built, students are sent for training outside the country.8. Parents/teachers Committees, School Committees, School Boards: If these bodies are just created without a serious aim in mind, they will achieve nothing.If their powers, functions, responsibilities and a whole range of interests are not even known to those who serve on them, then we are moving deeper into a quagmire of ignorance.THE CHILD IS NO LONGER THE CENTRE OF EDUCATION:Instead it is the teacher whose rights must be protected at all costs.Some teachers enjoy themselves and have a good time at the expense of the children.1. Lack of motivation of children: Drugs, liquor, sex and discos are the results of very poor motivation on the part of young children.2. As most black parents never had the opportunity to go to school, it is very difficult for them to focus on the key elements that should be addressed in order to motivate their kids to greater heights.3. Many teachers do not read much and so cannot always give their learners more than just the humdrum presentation of lessons, following textbooks slavishly and applying boring teaching methods.A good teacher does not regard children as mere cups of tea that must be filled.LACK OF OPPORTUNITIES:Are all the children in our schools being told by their teachers what beautiful opportunities await them outside there once they have completed their education? I think not:1. In many instances children are made to hate school and take to the streets.If little children see what is happening in some high schools and universities, where the main purpose of some students is merely to have fun, then small children will lose interest in learning.2. To compound this problem, the school curriculum does not make provision for practical subjects such as woodwork, metal work, etc.This could stand the weaker students in good stead when they look for work after failing Grade 10.HEAVY BACKLOG OF CLASSROOM ACCOMMODATION:1. Every year there are new arrivals on the social scene – the Grade Ones.It is not an exaggeration to state that new Primary Schools are required every year.At the rate of += 30 000 new children coming into the system yearly, and a Primary School holding about six hundred children, we are talking about at least 50 schools needed.This number will of course be reduced, as classrooms will be vacated by children promoted to other Grades, or leaving school.2. And new Primary Schools call for new Secondary Schools.A hundred million N$ can build thirty-three Primary Schools or twenty Secondary Schools.3. It is quite clear that the current crop of teachers in our schools includes a high percentage of teachers who are not capable of teaching young children.This needs a training/retraining programme.PARENTS ALSO NEED RE-EDUCATION:The more they are called on to participate in school activities the better.School Committees must be educated to know their responsibilities.Years ago, we built mud and grass bush schools in the Caprivi Region with parents who were illiterate but more than motivated to send their children to school.Some of the children of that time are employed in the various ministries of the Namibian Government right now.UNIVERSITY EDUCATION:Even at the height of the apartheid era, never did we in South West Africa (Namibia today) hear the apartheid Government in Pretoria give an order that students from this country were not allowed in South Africa.The borders were open and students went down freely to universities from Cape Town to the University of the North, to study.The lucky ones went down on free bursaries and scholarships.Children entering the world of knowledge need a much broader spectrum, wider horizons and sky-high opportunities to develop.While it is a good idea to have a university in Namibia, universities are available across the border.Namibia should instead strive to strengthen its Primary and Secondary sectors.We have a university on top of the pyramid with weak links to the base.That is why high officials in Government send their children across the border to study in South Africa.It is the most advanced country in Sub-Saharan Africa.To be fair to Namibian children who were for decades ruled from Pretoria, the government of President Mbeki should seriously consider having Namibian students second on the priority list of admissions after the children of South Africa, for at least twenty-five years.OUTSIDE TALENT:I propose a serious recruitment drive for qualified personnel in SADC countries.The governments of the SADC countries know why Namibia has so many problems in education, and they should be able to help.There are thousands of qualified teachers in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Lesotho.The MBEC should recruit at least three to five thousand of these teachers and contract them for at least five years.During their term of contract, our best Grade XII students should be selected and sent to training institutions in SADC countries for a four-year teachers training programme.The clock is ticking – waiting for us to make our hay while the sun still shines.Procrastinating will help us reap the fruits of failure as elsewhere in the world in general, and Africa in particular viz., demonstrations, toyi-toying, violence, boycotts and all the unholy occupations of an unemployed citizenry.Andrew Matjila Windhoek