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Quality Primary Education |
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| Partners | News | Success Stories | Links | Updated: 8/28/2006 |
Overview
When Namibia gained its independence just over 16 years ago, the education system that the new Government inherited was one 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. The new Government of the Republic of Namibia (GRN) quickly set about to create one unified structure for education administration and to mobilize itself to achieve five education sector goals: access, equity, quality, democracy and efficiency.
Since 1991, the GRN has remained highly committed to these five goals. Currently, it 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.
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.
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USAID`s Unique Partnership
Since 1995, USAID has worked closely with the Ministry of Education (MoE), forging a meaningful partnership that has made discernable contributions to the success of Namibia`s education reform program. Many collaborative sessions have yielded a common vision — a vision that is directed toward providing historically disadvantaged Namibians with the basic competencies of a primary school education and, thus, laying the foundation for their full participation in the political, economic and social life of their country.
Toward this vision, the partnership between USAID and MoE has had two major aims:
1. To expand quality education for both students and teachers in the lower primary grades; and,
2. To put in place the systems and structures necessary to deliver quality education services and strengthen the capacity of the MoE to manage educational management.
USAID`s assistance has been directed primarily toward grade 1-4 teachers and students in northern Namibia, where the most densely populated regions of Namibia are and where most of the country`s toughest development challenges lie. The regions targeted comprise almost 60 percent of the total population of Namibia and more than 70 percent of the total number of primary school children in the country. In 2004 USAID`s support to the education sector has been expanded to Grades 5 — 7 as well.
Beneficiaries of USAID Assistance:
* 273,720 Grade 1-7 learners, half of whom are girls, representing 69% of the total primary school enrolment of Namibia
* 6,761 teachers in the four target regions, 58.5% female
* All circuit, regional and national education system officials who support the learners and teachers in the 1084 primary and combined schools.
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The Early Years of Education Assistance
During the first five years of assistance (1995 — 2000), USAID`s program, implemented in collaboration with the Peace Corps and with support from the U.S.-based Institute for International Research, focused on enhancing the skills of teachers and improving the quality of materials available to them and their students. Achievements of the period include:
· Development, production, and distribution of Grades 1-4 curriculum in five African languages — the mother tongues of 95 percent of the population in the targeted regions, and the language in which students learn first;
· Over 2200 teachers at approximately 500 schools using the new curricula, along with better teaching methodologies;
· The establishment of a new Instructional Skills Certificate program for teacher certification based on Teacher Competency Manuals developed by the program.
Two supporting activities, which began during the 1995-2000 period, have strengthened the institutional capacity of the MoE to deliver a good quality education to Namibian learners. With USAID-financed assistance from the Rössing Foundation (a local NGO), the MoE has developed one of the strongest education monitoring and evaluation systems in Africa. Data collection tools and trained personnel provide a rich source of information from every school in the country. Today, the MoE is utilizing these data for a number of purposes, including the more equitable allocation of resources.
The second activity was the Professional Enhancement Program (PEP), through which the Universities of Montana, Wisconsin, Namibia, Western Cape in South Africa and Harvard collaborated to offer masters and doctoral degree programs to MoE officials and administrators. This unique distance learning program, through which MoE officials studied and worked at the same time, has graduated 28, including the then Minister of MoE, Mr John Mutorwa. The enthusiasm with which research has been conducted under the program has invigorated the Namibian Educational Research Association (NERA), in addition to an improved ministry capacity to understand and develop solutions to the issues facing Namibia`s education sector. NERA has published two volumes of monographs which contain the research results of the 28 graduates. The monographs were officially be launched in late 2003, and disseminated to support educational research.
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Continued USAID—MoE Partnership
The early years in Namibia`s education development saw significant improvements in access, equity and democracy. The greatest challenges to Namibia`s education sector today are achieving quality and efficiency. Moreover, there has been a growing recognition that, in order for the MoE to sustain its school-level successes, the systems and services supporting the primary schools need to be strengthened. USAID and MoE thus decided to shift the focus of their partnership. Beginning in the year 2000, and working through the Academy for Educational Development (AED), four new objectives were set:
· Improving teaching, learning, and school management systems;
· Increasing parent and community participation in the improvement of schools;
· Increasing capacity for the use of information technology; and
· Strengthening MoE`s professional capacity.
Under BES II, impressive progress was made:
Improved Teaching, Learning, and School Management Systems
· MoE has now improved instructional and management systems that have resulted in visible, positive changes at the school management level and in the classroom. Principals are better able to provide instructional leadership for their teachers in the use of improved teaching and assessment, and teachers are assessing their own classroom practices for improved instruction. Instruction has moved from teachers simply lecturing, to more participatory and interactive methods of classroom education, with children gaining confidence to take the lead in discussions and learning activities.
· Schools have been organized to receive improved services. In six education regions, 736 schools have been organized into 201 clusters. Each cluster is supported by a newly appointed team of educational leaders who have been designated to assist each school with the development and implementation of strategies for improved teaching and learning.
· A new system is in place that establishes national coordination for better quality management training and for future certification of all school principals.
· Schools now have access to improved support (financial, personnel, and professional staff development) from regional centers.
Increased Parent and Community Participation in the Improvement of Schools
· The MoE School Improvement Small Grants Program was established to provide incentives for communities to actively participate in the improvement of their schools. Numerous communities submitted proposals for USAID-funded school improvement grants. More than 60 communities were awarded grants with a total value of $450,000. Among the communities that received grant awards were those focused on school-based HIV/AIDS and environmental awareness activities, teaching materials development, the establishment of school libraries, agriculture clubs, and school newsletters.
· Over 3,695 parents and community members in nearly half of the MoE`s circuits in the six northern regions have participated in Teacher-Principal-Parents (TPP) workshops as well as the development of school improvement plans, which set a vision and action plan for strengthening their respective schools.
· For the first time, parents were being encouraged and turned up to participate in classroom instruction, teaching traditional arts and crafts, dance and oral history. For example, a three-day reading fair organized by parents and teachers at one school attracted 400 participants.
Increased Capacity to Utilize Information Technology
USAID technical support has enabled the establishment of four heavily utilized Teacher Resource Centers which provide access for teachers and MBESC officials to computers and on-line certification, distance education and professional development materials. Approximately 2,200 in-service teachers have enrolled in the MoE on-line certification program, and 1,900 have been awarded the Basic Education Teacher Diploma (BETD). The teachers carry out research on-line at the four centers established in USAID-assisted regions. After fifteen months of operation, the centers have over 1000 registered users, and demand is rising for similar centers elsewhere in the country. The Ministry is now developing Namibia-specific, computer-assisted courses for teachers and other trainers. Computer center staff have acquired tools and skills to develop computer-assisted training courses for MoE officials in USAID`s six targeted education regions. An innovative, low-cost strategy for maintaining the new centers, including the collection of fees from private users and the employment and training of out-of-school youth to manage and maintain the computer operating systems in all four of the new facilities, has been successfully implemented.
The MoE website, (http://www.edsnet.na),has been operational for several years now and offers on-line teacher certification opportunities and other professional development programs. The website enables various MoE employees (staff, in-service teachers, and teacher training college faculty members) to have access to a variety of online courses. To date, 40 MoE staff have completed the Wide World (WIDE) Course of the Harvard Graduate School of Education program and been awarded the Certificate of ITC Professional Management.
The Initiative for Namibian Education Technology (iNET) was another USAID activity designed to improve quality, expand access, and enhance equity through the application of digital and broadcasting technologies. Partners in the activity, which was completed in 2004, were USAID, the Education Development Center, Inc (EDC) and NIED. The activity focused on: 1) improved professional development for MoE officials (teachers, principals, advisory teachers, inspectors, and regional and head office staff) through expanded and sustained use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and 2) improved policy and planning of the MoE through decentralization of the Ministry`s Education Management Information System (EMIS).
Since 2003, USAID also supported two interrelated, three year Global Development Alliances (GDA). These activities were recently concluded successfully. The alliance members consisted of USAID, the National Institute for Education Development, the American Federation of Teachers Education Foundation, the Discovery Channel Global Education Fund, SchoolNet/Namibia, WorldTeach and the Peace Corps. The alliances were aimed at increasing the capacity of the education system through the use of ICT, including wireless connectivity, the delivery of computers and video equipment to isolated rural schools, and the development of improved educational content for use in the classroom. USAID`s US$1.1 million investment was leveraged at least US$1.63 million in cash and in-kind contributions from other alliance partners. The two public-private alliances reinforced the Namibian government`s efforts to further extend the use of ICT and indirectly contributed to the establishment of the ICT Steering Committee which developed a national ICT Policy as well as an implementation plan.
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Mitigating the Impact of HIV/AIDS
USAID is working closely with the MoE to build its capacity to manage the already alarming effects of HIV/AIDS. Namibia has a 20.3 percent prevalence rate among pregnant women, one of the highest in the world. Many teachers are HIV positive and increasingly students are orphaned or made vulnerable by the disease. USAID supported Namibia`s first-ever education sector HIV/AIDS strategy conference and assisted with a sector-wide assessment of the impact of the disease. As the education sector is increasingly feeling the effects of the epidemic through increased teacher absenteeism and a soaring number of orphans and vulnerable children, USAID increased the HIV/AIDS awareness of school principals, education officials and teachers. As a result, 1,440 principals and senior education officials were trained in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention programs, to deal with HIV/AIDS issues in schools. A total of 28 additional small grants valued at $200,000 were awarded to communities to implement activities that mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on school children, especially orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) to improve their school attendance. Under its current support strategy of ensuring increased resilience of basic education system to cope with the AIDS epidemic, USAID will continue to assist the MoE to provide care and support to the increasing numbers of orphans and vulnerable children.
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Looking Ahead
In 2004 the education sector started to develop a comprehensive plan to improve the quality of education in view of its contribution to the strategic national development goals of Vision 2030, which sets a very ambitious target that, by 2030, Namibia should join the ranks of high income countries and afford all its citizens a quality of life that is comparable to that of the developed world. This plan of the education sector, called the Education and Training Sector Improvement Program (ETSIP), is aimed at improving the quality, range and threshold of skilled labour required to improve knowledge-driven productivity growth, and thus contribute to economic growth. USAID’s support to the sector has also been aligned with the goals of ETSIP and is now focused on increasing the capacity of the basic education system to give learners the foundations for health and livelihood that will ensure that they will develop into productive citizens who will contribute meaningfully to the economic transformation of the country in line with the Vision 2030 goals.
The expectation is that, when USAID ends its assistance in 2010, primary school learners in the northern regions will have a significantly greater command of basic literacy, numeracy and (in upper primary), English, science and math skills. They will have learned basic life skills of responsible behavior and how to think critically. Foundations will have been laid for learners to successfully advance to higher levels of the education system, and, ultimately, to become economically productive members of society. Schools will use a variety of innovative techniques to ensure quality learning despite teacher absences due to HIV/AIDS. Teachers, school administrators and community members will have a much better understanding of HIV/AIDS issues than they have today and will be changing behaviors to take account of that understanding. The majority of primary school teachers will have greater subject knowledge of language, math, science, and life skills, as well as better teaching techniques. Teachers in many schools will have access to computer-based teaching aids and distance learning to upgrade their own skills. More steps towards decentralization in the education sector will be implemented in the northern regions. National and regional systems will rationalize and coordinate their responsibilities, while regional, circuit and school officials will carry out duties in ways that are responsive to local needs. Computer-based management systems will expedite monitoring and reporting and enhance accountability. Education policy and implementation will be increasingly participatory, thanks to empowered school boards and public-private partnerships. As a result, the education system will be producing graduates better qualified to meet the needs of industry and propel Namibia towards its envisioned goal of being a knowledge-based society.
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