Probe blames revised curriculum for high failure rate
Stakeholders attribute tragic results to ‘mismatch’
A parliamentary investigation has poked holes in the controversial new curriculum for secondary education, which saw 75% of learners failing last year's exams.
An investigation has found that Namibia’s revised secondary education curriculum is largely the cause of the increasingly high failure rate, especially learners sitting for external examinations, with key stakeholders arguing that it was poorly planned and not well-resourced.
The probe by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Science, ICT and Youth Development was conducted in 11 regions between July and September 2023.
In 2022, the education ministry announced an 85% failure rate in the grade 11 and 12 national exams, while last month, the ministry announced that just 25.2% of 40 682 full-time learners qualified to proceed to grade 12 or tertiary education.
School managers reportedly told parliamentarians from the National Council that the implementation of the new curriculum is flawed in that calculus teaching was only started in Advanced Subsidiary (AS) level, while there is a complete mismatch between AS and tertiary requirements.
It was also found that the grade 11 and 12 failures are a manifestation of a poor foundation in early education, with the automatic promotion policy resulting in hordes of learners arriving in high school unable to read and write.
Another headache is reportedly the poor quality of teaching between grades three and four, a critical transition from mother tongue to English, by untrained, unskilled teachers.
No coordination
The problem, however, appears to run right through the system, with learners complaining that there is no equipment for biology experiments, while in history, the content was not fully covered but was in examination papers.
In entrepreneurship, they claim that at least 80% of the questions in exams were not from the syllabus.
It was also established that teachers were not adequately trained to implement the curriculum, and that some schools were not provided with the resources prescribed in the curriculum such as textbooks, fully-equipped science laboratories and machinery for pre-vocational subjects.
The report by the parliamentary committee read: “The wider opinion on the revised curriculum is that there was no coordination between the implementers and the initiators of the curriculum and that there is therefore a disconnect resulting in everyone pulling in their own direction”.
It added: “The curriculum is ICT-based, but it is struggling to work due to limited resources currently experienced by an overwhelming majority of schools visited”.
It was also highlighted that AS learners are struggling to adapt to the curriculum because of a lack of textbooks and chemicals to carry out experiments.
Special needs not catered for
Meanwhile, the report highlighted that the curriculum does make provision for learners with learning difficulties and special needs, and that there is a need for qualified life skills teachers who can guide and advise learners, parents and teachers.
Edda Bohn, the deputy executive director in the education ministry, said they are fully aware of the report and its contents and that they will provide a substantive response soon.
[email protected]
The probe by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Science, ICT and Youth Development was conducted in 11 regions between July and September 2023.
In 2022, the education ministry announced an 85% failure rate in the grade 11 and 12 national exams, while last month, the ministry announced that just 25.2% of 40 682 full-time learners qualified to proceed to grade 12 or tertiary education.
School managers reportedly told parliamentarians from the National Council that the implementation of the new curriculum is flawed in that calculus teaching was only started in Advanced Subsidiary (AS) level, while there is a complete mismatch between AS and tertiary requirements.
It was also found that the grade 11 and 12 failures are a manifestation of a poor foundation in early education, with the automatic promotion policy resulting in hordes of learners arriving in high school unable to read and write.
Another headache is reportedly the poor quality of teaching between grades three and four, a critical transition from mother tongue to English, by untrained, unskilled teachers.
No coordination
The problem, however, appears to run right through the system, with learners complaining that there is no equipment for biology experiments, while in history, the content was not fully covered but was in examination papers.
In entrepreneurship, they claim that at least 80% of the questions in exams were not from the syllabus.
It was also established that teachers were not adequately trained to implement the curriculum, and that some schools were not provided with the resources prescribed in the curriculum such as textbooks, fully-equipped science laboratories and machinery for pre-vocational subjects.
The report by the parliamentary committee read: “The wider opinion on the revised curriculum is that there was no coordination between the implementers and the initiators of the curriculum and that there is therefore a disconnect resulting in everyone pulling in their own direction”.
It added: “The curriculum is ICT-based, but it is struggling to work due to limited resources currently experienced by an overwhelming majority of schools visited”.
It was also highlighted that AS learners are struggling to adapt to the curriculum because of a lack of textbooks and chemicals to carry out experiments.
Special needs not catered for
Meanwhile, the report highlighted that the curriculum does make provision for learners with learning difficulties and special needs, and that there is a need for qualified life skills teachers who can guide and advise learners, parents and teachers.
Edda Bohn, the deputy executive director in the education ministry, said they are fully aware of the report and its contents and that they will provide a substantive response soon.
[email protected]
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