Education in Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

is compulsory for 10 years between the ages of 6 and 16. There are approximately 1500 schools in Namibia of which 100 are privately owned. The Constitution directs the government to provide free primary education; however, families must pay fees for uniforms, books, hostels, and school improvements.

Statistics

The Namibian education system accommodates approximately 600,000 learners of which 174,000 are senior secondary students and below 10,000 are pre-primary pupils. While teachers are seen as generally adequately educated they lack specialised training. Schools consistently perform below expectation; failure and dropout rates are high. Only 12% of learners proceed into tertiary education of any kind due to limited places in universities and vocational training.

In 1997, the gross primary enrollment rate was 130.6 percent, and the net primary enrollment rate was 91.2 percent. According to the Ministry of Labor’s child labor survey, 80 percent of working children between the ages of 6 and 18 continue to attend school while they are employed.

Before independence

Until Namibia's independence, the country's education system was designed to reinforce apartheid rather than provide the necessary human resource base to promote equitable social and economic development. It was fragmented along racial and ethnic lines, with vast disparities in both the allocation of resources and the quality of education offered.

After independence

The new Government of the Republic of Namibia (GRN) set about to create one unified structure for education administration. Currently, Namibia allocates more than 20% of its national budget to education. This represents six to seven percent of Namibia's total GDP and is one of the three countries with the highest percentage of GDP directed toward education in the world.

Researchers from the United States Agency for International Development

United States Agency for International Development

The United States Agency for International Development is the United States federal government agency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid. President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 by executive order to implement development assistance programs in the areas...

 opine that the investment is paying off. A new, uniform and learner-centered curriculum for grades one through twelve, finalized in 1998, has received recognition beyond Namibia's borders and significant progress has been made in the use of English (which replaced Afrikaans as the nation's official language) as a medium of instruction. About 95 percent of school age children attend school and the number of teachers has increased by almost 30 percent since 1990. Over 3000 new classrooms have been built. As a result of these improvements, repetition rates in all grades have been reduced. Whereas in 1991, half the learners in grade 1 were repeating the grade, by 2003, over 84 percent of learners were earning their promotions on time. Dropout rates have also plummeted.

On the other hand, Namibia's Minister of Education Abraham Iyambo

Abraham Iyambo

Abraham Iyambo is a Namibian politician. A member of SWAPO, Iyambo has been a member of the National Assembly since 1995 and is the Minister of Education.-Education:...

 summarily described the Namibian education system as "crippled", citing dropout rates, lack of teaching facilities, financial difficulties, sub-standard vocational training, and absence of pre-primary development. A National Conference on Education, running from 27 June to 1 July 2011, was conferred to address the most pressing issues.

Pre-Primary Education

The Namibian government introduced a three year pre-primary education pilot programme in 2008. This programme was subsequently given a two year extension and will thus run until 2013. It aims at giving children from poor backgrounds access to pre-primary education and is aimed at children between the ages of five and six. The programme requires the implementation of pre-primary education at primary schools. The progress on the pilot programme thus far:

• Khomas Region
  Khomas Region
  Khomas is one of the thirteen regions of Namibia. It contains the capital city Windhoek and provides for this reason superior transportation infrastructure. It has well-developed economical, financial, and trade sectors. Khomas Region occupies 4.5% of the land area of Namibia but has the highest...
  
   21 of the 67 primary schools have so far introduced pre-primary education.
• Karas Region
  Karas Region
  The Karas Region is the southernmost region of Namibia. The name assigned to the region reflects the prominence of the Karas mountain range in its southern part...
  
   18 out of 38 primary schools have so far introduced pre-primary education.
• 24 pre-primary schools in the Caprivi Region
  Caprivi Region
  Caprivi is one of the 13 regions of Namibia. It takes its name from the Caprivi Strip which in turn was named after Leo von Caprivi.-Geography:...
  
   have introduced pre-primary education while 27 of the 138 pre-primary schools in the Ohangwena Region
  Ohangwena Region
  Ohangwena is one of the thirteen regions of Namibia. The northern and western parts of the region are the most densely populated of this essentially subsistence agricultural region in which small scale mahangu cultivation and the keeping of cattle form the predominant activities...
  
   have introduced pre-primary education.

Primary Education

Compulsory education starts at primary education level at an age of 6. Primary education consists of seven years from Grade 1 to Grade 7 to prepare children for secondary education.

Secondary Education

Secondary education stretches over a period of 5 years from Grade 8 to Grade 12. Children are presented with a Junior Secondary School Certificate after successful completion of Grade 10.

After successful completion of Grade 12 learners are presented with a Namibia Senior Secondary Education Certificate. This certification can either be the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) or the Higher International General Certificate of Secondary Education (HIGCSE). IGCSE exam papers are set and marked in Namibia, but moderated by Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

. HIGCSE question papers are set, marked and moderated by the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

 in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

Grade 12 cannot be failed but for learners that wish to pursue further studies they need to obtain a good grade as per the requirements of tertiary institution both locally or abroad. The Evaluation Scale for Grade 12 is:

• IGCSE grades: A B C D E F G
• Equivalent points: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
• HIGCSE grades: 1 2 3 4
• Equivalent points: 10 9 8 6

Tertiary Education

Namibia has two public tertiary institutions of general education, the Polytechnic of Namibia

Polytechnic of Namibia

The Polytechnic of Namibia, locally also known as Poly or Polytechnic, is an institute of tertiary education in Windhoek, Namibia. It has been established by Act 33 / 1994 of the Namibian Parliament.-History:...

 and the University of Namibia

University of Namibia

The University of Namibia is the national university of Namibia, located in the Pioneers Park district of Windhoek. Established by an act of National Assembly on 31 August 1992, UNAM includes Colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Economics & Management Science Education, Humanities and...

 (UNAM). At the Polytechnic of Namibia admission is based on grade 12 certificate with a maximum of five qualifying subjects with a total score of 25 points or more and a E symbol or better in English. At the University of Namibia’s basic requirement for entrance to undergraduate degree programmes is a Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSC) with a pass in five subjects with a total score of 25 points, on the UNAM evaluation scale, or more in not more than three examination sittings.

There are a number of specialised tertiary educational institutions such as the College of the Arts

College of the Arts, Windhoek

The College of the Arts is an institution of arts education in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. It employs 39 lecturers full-time and 75 on part time basis...

 (Cota) in Windhoek

Windhoek

Windhoek is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level. The 2001 census determined Windhoek's population was 233,529...

, the Namibian Maritime and Fisheries Institute

Namibian Maritime and Fisheries Institute

The Namibian Maritime and Fisheries Institute is a tertiary educational institution situated in Walvis Bay, Namibia. It was established in July 1996 by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources...

 (NAMFI) in Walvis Bay

Walvis Bay

Walvis Bay , is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies...

, and the Namibian Institute of Mining and Technology

Namibian Institute of Mining and Technology

The Namibian Institute of Mining and Technology is a technical institute in Arandis, Namibia. It offers courses in mining, manufacturing and engineering. In 2007, De Beers donated N$2.1 million to open a second, northern campus and in November of that year a campus was opened in Tsumeb.In 2006,...

 (NIMT) in Arandis

Arandis, Namibia

Arandis, Namibia is a town in Erongo Region, Namibia. It is also a crossing loop on the Trans-Namib Railway. It has been called the Uranium Capital of the World as it is located just 15 km outside the world's largest open-pit uranium mine, the Rössing Uranium Mine.Established for the workers of...

.

Current Status

The Namibian education system is experiencing many obstacles. Currently the system is faced with serious weaknesses in the provision of education to all. Additionally the quality of education, quality of teachers and the performance of learners is unsatisfactory. The Ministry of Education is drafting an improvement program that is known as the ETSIP (Education and Training Sector Improvement Program). The ETSIP aims to align the entire Namibian education system to Namibia’s Vision 2030 and the needs of the Namibian population.

External links

• Namibia Ministry of Education
• Education Statistics and Quality of Education in Namibia, Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ)
• Polytechnic of Namibia
• University of Namibia