Namibia is close to achieving the global MDG target of universal primary education by 2005.142 Moreover, across the education system gender parity has been achieved where enrolment for girls is slightly higher than for boys. There are also concerted efforts being made to improve coordination, planning, spending, monitoring and improving efficiencies and effectiveness across the sector.

Basic education provision in terms of both learner access and teacher supply improved significantly in recent years, as more teachers are professionally qualified143 and sector priorities are set within Medium Term Planning and Expenditure Frameworks that are cognizant of fiscal constraints within the sector. The significant improvements in basic education since Independence will help Namibia meet its target to become a knowledge-based economy by 2030.144 Notwithstanding, fiscal and other institutional constraints as well as the impact of HIV/AIDS on the education system and families hamper progression and pose a major threat of reversing these gains.

Issues Identified
Access to Primary education is quite good with enrolment trends in Basic Education having increased rapidly since Independence but enrolment reached a peak of 95% in 1995 and then gradually began to decline to 89% in 2001.145

Endemic in the Primary and Junior Secondary phases are poor quality teaching and poor quality learning and a significant disparity across regions regarding resource allocation.146 Measures on learner quality and attainment of functional literacy are only objectively assessed at the end of Grade 10, as the Grade 7 semi-external examination results are neither standardized across the board nor published once results are available. This lack of an available diagnostic tool on learner achievement in the Primary phase continues to have implications for performance in Junior Secondary.

The semi-automatic promotion system in Basic Education poses implications for learner achievement of set competencies at specific stages in the various phases. This is partly due to the lack of remedial teaching for those may be identified with learning difficulties. In the absence of an objective external assessment at end of Primary level, learners end up being pushed out by the system as a result of poor performance at end of Junior Secondary level. If Grade 10 results serve as a proxy indicator for quality performance lower down in the system, then almost 50% of learners do not achieve the basic competencies required to progress successfully through Basic Education. There exists great variation in teacher competencies and this has an impact on quality and efficient education delivery. Teacher attrition, coupled by the absence of a formalized relief teacher system, and compounded by the impact of HIV/AIDS, continues to exert pressure on the system’s delivery capacity.

Since Independence, enrolment rates have significantly improved. The Primary NER of 89% combined with its 2001 GER of 108% suggests the capacity of its primary schools is adequate for current demand.₁₄₇

Internal efficiency and wastage have been prominent, especially in Primary and Secondary levels. No data currently exists that spells out the magnitude of wastage and its underlying causes. Access to Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes is particularly limited and delineation of roles and responsibilities between key ministries regarding policy and administrative functions is unclear. In 2001, only 32% of three to six year olds were enrolled in ECD centres. Enrolment rates are higher in regions with dense population concentrations such as Oshana (48%), Khomas (44%), Omusati (40%), Oshikoto (38%) and Erongo (38%). In contrast, enrolments are very low in other population-dense areas such as Kavango (15%) and Caprivi (14%). Enrolment is higher in urban areas (39%) than in rural areas (30%) and for girls (33%) than for boys (31%).148

The key challenges are:

• Lack of proper policy and institutional frameworks for ECD service delivery
• Poor performance on internal efficiency indicators in Primary phase
• Inequitable allocation of quality enhancing inputs
• Unequal distribution of education outcomes
• Ineffective capacity of Secondary phase to cater for Grade 10 graduates
• Institutional and human resource challenges
• HIV/AIDS impact on service provision and delivery capacity
• Significant wastage, with particular focus on end of Junior Secondary

  No single challenge facing the system can be highlighted and analyzed in isolation therefore low enrolment and wastage in the Secondary phase is the central theme of this chapter. By focusing on secondary education the analysis also covers wastage in the Primary phase, institutional capacity across the sector, internal and external efficiency measures and performance, planning and budgetary constraints, quality enhancing inputs and subsequent quality outcomes, and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the system’s delivery capacity.

  Low Senior Secondary Enrolment
  Statement of Rights Unfulfilled
  "Secondary education...shall be made generally available and accessible to all..."
  "Higher education shall be made equally accessible to all..."
  - International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Almost half of Namibia’s children eligible for Senior Secondary school are not enrolled,149 even though GERs have improvement vastly since Independence.150 Approximately two thirds of learners drop out in the primary level and in the transition to the Senior Secondary phase. Low quality in the Primary phase and the resultant knock-on effect in Junior Secondary compromise Vision 2030.151 There is also increasing evidence that out of school youth are more likely to contract HIV. Hence, access and retention in education is also linked to the protection of the right to life and health for young people.

  Causality Analysis
  This analysis starts off on the premise that the immediate causes of low enrolment in Senior Secondary are rooted in the system’s inequitable access and uneven distribution of resources and poor quality outputs.

  Inequitable Access and Unequal Distribution of Resources
  Underlying learner attrition at the Primary and Junior Secondary levels are a variety of factors including: the inability of parents and caregivers to pay school development fees, which principals are supposed to waive but often do not;152 the demands for boys to tend to livestock, girls to do domestic chores and both boys and girls to care for the sick or assume the responsibilities of dead family members;153 an under-appreciation of the value of education;154 increasing numbers of orphans155; and teenage pregnancy.156 Poor performance is another underlying factor to Primary and Junior Secondary learner attrition because it is seen as a disincentive by some families to continue investing in a child’s education.

  Given that about one-quarter of learners do not survive to grade 8 the capacity of Namibia’s Junior Secondary schools appears adequate for current demand. However, in 2001 the Junior Secondary GER was 85%157, indicating that the current capacity is inadequate for accommodating the entire population of 14 to 16 year olds. As survival rates improve, more Junior Secondary classes will need to be added or the average number of learners per class, 33 in 2001, will rise and will further compromise quality learning environments.¹⁵⁸

  The low absorptive incapacity of the Senior Secondary level is an immediate concern given the 31% GER in grades 11 and 12 in 2001.159 At the class size of 31 in 2001, the grades can accommodate less than a third of the age group.160 Unlike at the Junior Secondary level the demand currently exceeds the supply. In order to progress to grade 11, learners must pass the Junior Secondary Certificate Exam (JSCE) at the end of grade 10. Each year MBESC adjusts the passing point on the basis of how many learners its Senior Secondary grades can accommodate. In 2001, only 46% of learners who took the exam scored the required points. That combined with the learner attrition induced on the demand-side has led to a survival rate to grade 11 of only about one-third of learners.

  From 1994 to 2003 government education spending averaged 28% of total public expenditure and 9% of GDP, although the proportion has declined over time.162 The overall financial commitment has not been a problem but there are inefficiencies in how education expenditures are allocated. The government is subsidising post-Secondary students at much higher rates than Primary and Secondary learners. Unemployment for those with post- Secondary training is less than 5% and they can therefore be expected to assume debt to pay for their post-Secondary education.163 Their subsidies are detracting from improving access to and the quality of Basic Education, which serves some 98% of Namibians in the public education system.164 Additional inefficiencies lie in the proportion of education spending allocated to wages and salaries, which accounted for 68% of the total between 1994 and 2003.¹⁶⁵

  Inequity in resource allocation across the sub-sector reflects the inequitable resource distribution from before the country’s Independence.166 The poorest performing regions, in the North, which educate over approximately 70% of the country’s learners, continue to be disadvantaged in terms of resource allocation. Inequitable resource allocation mitigates against learner access, retention, and learner outputs.167 Significant disparities exist with respect to human resource allocation as is evidenced by learner teacher ratios and numbers of qualified teachers per region. The resultant effect of unequal distribution of resources, especially in the Primary phase, is poor performance and output at Secondary levels.168 Inequity and quality are interrelated in that resource allocations favour regions with higher numbers of qualified teachers and lower teacher to learner ratios. Teacher placement problems also exist where qualified teachers of different subjects are placed to teach subjects they have not been trained to teach due to a need to fill teacher positions. Furthermore, rural areas are particularly characterized by large class sizes and significant numbers of under or unqualified teachers. These are the regions that are disadvantaged in terms of resource allocations.

  The region with the lowest reading proficiency, Ohangwena, has over 13 schools per information centre. In 2001, only 37% of Namibia’s schools had telephones and 42% had electricity. The provision of water and sanitation is more widespread, with 67% having improved water sources and 71% having toilets. These measures have improved markedly since Independence. Almost all of the schools in the best performing regions—Khomas, Erongo, Hardap and Karas—have clean water, toilets, electricity and telephones. The four regions with the lowest proportions of schools with basic services all had JSCE pass rates below the national average. 169

  Poor Quality Outputs
  Quality improvement within the sector has been slow.170 Poor academic performance varies across regions and it appears as if resource inputs correlate with learner outputs. Thus, regions that are more disadvantaged in terms of resource allocation and availability tend to perform poorer. Moreover, quality enhancing inputs vary considerably across regions as schools continue to rely heavily on school development fund contributions. However, many learners cannot contribute to these funds. As a result, schools continue to face declining resource availability, and need to rely on other measures to provide and sustain quality delivery.

  The low quality of Namibia’s Basic Education system is evident by various measures. Two surveys on quality of Primary education showed that 69% of grade 6 learners could not read with any level of proficiency in 1995 and 76% could not in 2000. Out of the 14 countries in the region surveyed, Namibia’s grade 6 learners ranked 12th in reading and last in mathematics. Namibian grade six teachers came in second to last in mathematics out of 12, but performed comparatively better in reading, coming in sixth. The high failure rate of grade 10 learners on the JSCE attests to quality issues continuing into the Junior Secondary level. Moreover, of the 46% of learners who scored the points required to pass in 2001, most scored just above the failure point.¹⁷¹

  Although data on vocational and tertiary education is sparse, indications are that quality issues persist into these levels. Pass rates on the external trade tests given to students completing the four-year programme at state-funded Vocational and Training Colleges (VTCs) have improved considerably since 1998, but as recently as 2002 about half of the course-completers failed. A 2001 survey of 38 enterprises employing trainees of the Windhoek VTC, considered one of the best in the country, found that about half of the employers were dissatisfied with the work quality of the trainees. At the tertiary level, interviews with educators and employers point to the same problems: poor communication, writing, English, mathematics, science and computer skills of students and graduates. These deficiencies are apparent with incoming first year students, necessitating that the institutions focus on remedial skills at the outset.172

  Underlying poor performance later on in the Basic Education system is inadequate provision for ECD opportunities for 3-6 year olds. Coupled with limited access is the limited numbers of trained ECD caregivers. Rural poverty contributes to the inability of communities to provide adequate ECD facilities. Furthermore, there is inequitable access to primary education.173 National figures for NER are not representative of all ethnic groups as over 60% of San children are not attending school, and a significant percentage of children drop out of school before completing end of the Primary cycle.

  Significant wastage, as evidenced by poor retention, poor progression, low survival rates, and increased dropouts in Secondary contribute to the low level of enrolment at Senior Secondary. Returns on investment in Basic Education have mainly yielded poor returns.174 The poor performance of learners in Grade 10 examinations is symptomatic of poor performance on internal efficiency measures in Basic Education. Poor learner readiness to progress through the various grades, as evidenced by national statistics, indicates the need for stricter measures of quality control.175 The poor grade 10 results are a symptom of internal inefficiency and there is a need to improve measures for external assessment of grade 7 learners.

  Poor quality enhancing inputs, such as adequate provision of teaching and learning materials, supply of human resources, and insufficient quality monitoring contribute to learners not achieving the requisite level of competencies. Since government resource allocation to schools are limited schools have to rely on additional sources of income to supplement available funds in order to acquire basic instructional materials, such as textbooks.

  Teacher attrition hampers continuity and quality learning. The absence of a formalized replacement teacher system complicates the provision of substitute teachers. Overall sub-sector spending has mainly centred on personnel and other overhead costs. As teachers salaries are linked to qualifications huge salary bill expenditures are incurred by government. There are currently no measures in place to redress this large budget expenditure, and as teachers are not inclined to be transferred to other less advantaged region schools with inadequate staff, numbers continue to be under pressure. With declining resource allocations and inability of schools to raise adequate resources from school development funds quality teaching and effective learning throughput will continue to be compromised. The impact of HIV/AIDS on teacher attrition is significant and warrants the institutionalization of measures to address this problem.176 A vast majority of schools, mostly those in northern regions, continue to face an insufficient supply of adequate teaching and learning resources. Large numbers of unqualified Primary teachers, mostly in northern regions, contribute to inability of learners to achieve requisite levels of competence.

  The factors underlying Namibia’s low education quality are manifold:

  • Poor pre-natal maternal health, child health and malnutrition, iodine deficiency and improper childcare practices harm the cognitive ability of babies with lifelong consequence.
  • It is likely that large proportions of school-age children do not eat enough and thus have difficulties concentrating on their studies. MBESC has a school-feeding programme that is reaching only about one-fifth of learners nationwide.177
  • Due to the low coverage of ECD centres, the vast majority of Namibian children are not prepared for primary school. ECD programmes generally enhance social and expressive skills and provide a base for literacy and numeracy. Only a small minority of centres nationwide have the resources and skills for high quality ECD. MBESC provides a 10-week school readiness programme to all grade 1 children, but this does not provide the level of preparation they need.
  • Many parents and caregivers do not have adequate education to support their children academically.
  • Education resources are distributed unevenly in favour of formerly advantaged southern regions. Education regions that perform well by national and African standards-Keetmanshoop (Karas and Hardap) and Windhoek (includes Khomas), receive the most financing per primary school learner and higher than average funding per Secondary learner. Over time, these disparities will be corrected as more teachers reach the required level of qualifications.
  • No region comes close to having enough books for its primary schools, which require seven books per learner for each to have one for every subject. Hardap, Khomas and Ohangwena have the highest textbook to Primary learner ratios, in the range of 3.1 to 3.7. The ratios are better in Secondary schools. All regions except Kunene have enough textbooks to provide one for every learner in each core subject, but the ratios are still far from meeting the demands of every subject.¹⁷⁸
  • There are not enough qualified teachers. Although about half of the teachers are qualified about 18% did not complete Secondary school and have not had any teacher training. Qualified teachers are concentrated at the Secondary level. With only 41% of Primary teachers qualified, the essential base needed to succeed in Secondary school is compromised. The high-performing regions have the largest proportions of qualified teachers and academically weak regions have low proportions.179 About 2,000 teacher trainees per year are enrolled in the three-year course of the Colleges of Education (CoE) and some 600 newly trained teachers start working per year, which represents about 3% of the national teacher corps.180 This rate is insufficient to keep pace with teacher attrition. Between 2000 and 2001, 8% of all teachers and 7% of qualified teachers left the system.¹⁸¹
  • It is likely that the impact of AIDS will quicken teacher attrition rates. In 2002, it was estimated that as many as one in seven educators were infected with HIV nationwide, with the proportion rising to one in four in Caprivi. The death rate of teachers was estimated at 1.4% per year in 2000. Without ARV drugs, the annual death rate would climb to 3.5% by 2010, resulting in the cumulative loss of 3,360 teachers, or 19% of the current teaching corps. Even with the consistent use of anti-retrovirals, an estimated 860 teachers would die by the decade’s end.¹⁸²
  • As the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) results on teacher competencies suggest, the vast improvements in teacher qualifications have yet to translate into teacher quality. Even among qualified teachers, large proportions lack basic competencies. Many teachers have difficulty interpreting the curriculum, implementing continuous assessment and employing learner-centred methodologies. Moreover, the teacher corps has not overcome apartheid’s Bantu education system, which undermined education for blacks. Many teachers have poor reading, grammar and elicitation skills, a limited vocabulary and difficulty explaining concepts. As a result, teachers are found to teach the textbook and leave out parts of the syllabus they do not understand.183
  • A significant underlying factor to Namibia’s low education quality is that the nation is still transitioning to English as the national language. Many teachers are uncomfortable with the language and learners rarely use it outside of school.
  • Education curricula and content do not sufficiently address major development issues or teach practical life skills and knowledge. This includes issues like HIV/AIDS, values and the environment and necessary practical skills such as how to prevent HIV/AIDS infection and how to behave responsibly in society and in conserving the natural environment. There is a need for further strengthening environmental learning, building on initiatives like the Supporting Environmental Education in Namibia project.¹⁸⁴

    Root Causes
    The limited provision of ECD is primarily rooted in the failure to delineate functions between the various role players as per policy and institutional provisions. ECD provision is not conceptualized within a holistic framework which caters for children 0-6 years old. There is a need for setting of quality standards and concomitant budgetary and other resource provision to improve access to ECD. It is essential to define and assess institutional capacity for ECD delivery, and then to have in place programmes for capacity development.

    The lack of disaggregated data by language groups and gender for the sector directly contributes to its inability to provide for learners marginalized by the system. There are no comprehensive data generation mechanisms at regional level that could identify disparities that could feed into a centralized Education Management Information System (EMIS) for budgeting and planning purposes.

    The lack of performance monitoring standards at central level hamper the Inspectorate and Advisory Services (IAS) to affect quality assurance at school level. In light of the ongoing decentralisation exercise, it is essential that IAS be adequately utilized to develop capacity of school authorities and instil a greater sense of responsibility for results.

    There is currently no data that explains the reasons for the significant wastage. The absence of this information makes planning of interventions difficult and promotes overlaps at the expense of efficiency. Furthermore, the semi-automatic promotion policy has the potential of pushing learners through the system who have not necessarily achieved the requisite competencies for a particular grade. The provisions of the semi-automatic promotion policy would need to be clearly spelled out and practiced by teachers to ensure that learners who fail do get the necessary remedial attention before being promoted to the next grade.

    Role Analysis
    Parents and other caregivers are responsible for sending their children to school, paying their school fees, giving them the preparation and resources they need for success, monitoring their performance and being involved with school activities.

    The MOHSS, MWACW and MBESC are all jointly responsible for ensuring that children receive integrated ECD and adequate levels of food and health care to allow them to concentrate on their schoolwork. MWACW is responsible for increasing access to and the quality of ECD programmes and supporting OVCs, including street children.

    The MBESC must ensure that resources, funds, text books, qualified teachers and all other important components of education are distributed evenly across the regions and among the various levels of the education system. MBESC is responsible for providing adequate provision of places in primary school, training teachers and having enough relief teachers, expanding the capacity of the Secondary grades, providing learning inputs and setting policy and financial frameworks conducive to improving education quality and increasing access for all. MBESC should ensure that the curriculum addresses important life skills, addressing HIV/AIDS, the environment and other practical issues. MBESC and IAS are responsible for providing guidance and quality assurance monitoring at school level.

    Teachers are responsible to be present at school and strictly follow the prescribed curriculum. Teachers and school administrators are obliged to act in the best interest of their pupils, give them a quality education, comply with the law and MBESC policy and work with caregivers to improve performance. MBESC should ensure that all teachers are properly trained in English now that it is the official language of the country. School boards are responsible for active involvement in school management. Community leaders have a duty to encourage school enrolment, prohibit child labour, establish ECD centres, support struggling families and ensure that orphans get proper care.

    MOHSS is responsible for increasing access to anti-retroviral drugs and improving the nation’s health, including and beyond the combating of HIV/AIDS. The OPM, the trade unions, education ministries and Government Institutions Pension Fund should ensure that all teachers and their dependents become members of the Public Service Employees Medical Aid Scheme. The relevant branches of government, civil society and the international community are obliged to encourage economic growth, alleviate poverty and support all duty-bearers in fulfilling their obligations.

    Capacity-gap Analysis
    Although policy provisions are relatively clear, there is a lack of definition of roles and responsibilities between the various ministries regarding who is responsible for ensuring that learners are healthy, suitably fed and have access to ECD programmes. There is ineffective implementation of policy provisions that cater for educationally marginalized children and for OVCs in general.

    Parents may lack the educational background themselves to help their children with their homework.185 The inability of parents and caregivers to contribute to school development funds is an increasing problem. Furthermore, many parents depend on their children to work and do not have money to contribute to school-development funds.186 Learners that cannot pay school fees will not be denied basic education but some parents are not able to ask for a fee waiver. There are sometimes also language barriers between parents and school staff. Community leaders face similar challenges.

    Poor management and accountability for results perpetuate poor performance at school level. Devolution of authority to regions in light of the decentralisation exercise does not necessarily mean devolution of sufficient resources. There are vast inequities in resource allocation across and within regions, mostly to the detriment of northern regions.

    The MBESC needs to ensure that that funds, skilled teachers and textbooks are distributed evenly across the region, in part because of how these resources are allocated and partially because of inequalities stemming from pre-Independence.

    Some teachers and principals do not do their jobs to the best of their abilities, understand the importance of working with parents or follow MBESC policy. Not all teachers speak English well and some rely upon rote learning methods.187 School boards only control the money they raise from parental contributions, which is usually a very small amount. Often there is inadequate oversight over how school-development funds are spent. There is also a lack of information sharing between school boards and parents, especially on the exemption policy of school development funds.

    There are an inefficient number of Secondary school teachers and limited uptake in the CoE, as well no pool of temporary teaching staff to draw from. Support teaching staff is becoming more urgent due to the effect of HIV/AIDS. There are insufficient resources for physical expansion. There is a lack of establishment of National Education Development Fund mechanisms.

    There is no policy on quality standard setting and schools not strictly accept their accountability for quality output and effective education delivery. The Inspectorate and Advisory services are not being used effectively for monitoring. School boards are not trained well enough in effective school management, including quality assurance measures.

    The ongoing reform process in the education sector is primarily characterized by the development of a sector improvement plan within the framework of a sector wide approach. Sector planning and budgeting processes have also undergone reform in that Government MTEF and Medium term Strategic Plans have been introduced. This new development has allowed the two education ministries to align sector programmes with resource allocation over the medium term, and subsequent monitoring and measurement of sub-sector performance through nationally defined indicators. There have also been concerted efforts in bringing together various planning documents into one strategic document (the Education Training Sector Improvement Plan) which would guide sector planning, budgeting, and performance monitoring. Government has, in the face of declining resources as indicated in MTEF documents, continued to institute efforts aimed at improving access, quality and equity within the education sector. Because of decentralisation more and more programme management is being transferred to the regions and as a result capacity development needs to be strengthened across the various levels of the system.

    The impact of HIV/AIDS on the education system’s capacity to deliver quality education is significant given tighter resource constraints. As MBESC continues to face continuous budgetary and resource constraints it will be required to rationalize expenditure, put in place mechanisms for quality assurance in teaching, and maintaining an accepted level of teacher attrition rates in the context of HIV/AIDS. Increased interrupted learner attendance, dropout as a result of the pandemic, coupled with the inability of learners to contribute to school development funds, will require that schools have access to remedial measures for exempting needy learners while maintaining quality with decreased development funds. As a recourse for quality maintenance MBESC need to ensure that schools that exempt needy learners can access the National Education Development Fund to claim reimbursements. In the absence of proper relief teacher mechanisms, access to retro-viral treatment for teachers, access to the National Education Development Fund, and improved performance on internal efficiency measures, the system will not meet the demand for quality service delivery.

    Issues Requiring Further Research Alcohol abuse among teachers and learners The causes of learner attrition Strategies for improving education quality The quality of and access to postsecondary education

    The system response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic is not mainstreamed across the system. The HIV/AIDS Management Unit is delegated with the sole responsibility of implementing HIV/AIDS programmes. Apart from centralizing the oversight responsibility there is still the need to mainstream system response across the sector. Within this system response provision would need to be made for a teacher replacement mechanism. The capacity of the system to teach appropriate life skills for HIV prevention also needs urgent attention.

    Conclusion
    Increasing Senior Secondary enrolment will require a focus on health, ECD and improving the access to and quality of Primary education in order to prepare learners for success at that level. The capacity of post-Secondary education must expand in tandem with improvements to Basic Education so that all qualified youth have equal opportunities. Despite Namibia’s successes in education since Independence, the sector is under threat due to the effect of HIV/AIDS on teaching staff and on the stability of the lives of learners. Girls are more at risk when parents and other caregivers pass away. The effects of HIV/AIDS are occurring simultaneously with a decrease in real terms of Government funding for education. If Namibia wants to succeed in brining the nation into prosperity, as envisaged in Vision 2030, it needs to do more to deliver quality education for all.