“A conference focused on the improvement of the English language in schools will be held early in the month of March 2020 to unpack the reasons for the persistent poor performance at schools”, said the Deputy Minister of Education, Arts and Culture Anna Nghipondoka in Namibia, last week when announcing the latest matric results.
Nghipondoka asserted that performing poorly in English deprives pupils of a chance to get admitted to institutions of higher learning despite performing well in other subjects.
According to The Namibian, the Deputy Minister received support in the form of locals calling for English to be discarded as a requirement to pass. A cynical remark making the rounds is that a knowledge of English is not a “measure of one’s intelligence”. However, that argument is inconsequential to the fact that English is the medium of instruction in schools and Namibia’s official language said the Namibian news platform.
In addition to this, less than nine years ago, the Namibian ministry of education conducted nationwide tests on teachers’ English proficiency: 98% of 23 000 teachers were found to be poor. As much as 70% of teachers struggled to read, write and speak English.
The conference, branded as a holistic review of the education system, was first held in 2011 by education minister Abraham Iyambo. He was working on the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme, a 15-year (2006-2020) strategy to improve the standard of education in Namibia.
However, nearly every year since Namibian independence, barley 50% of Namibian pupils pass matric, and a large number of pupils continue to drop out before they reach the final year concluded the newspaper.
Source: The Namibian
