Educators missed director's target
The director of education in the Oshana Region has described the region's performance in last year's national examinations as “pathetic” and “embarrassing”.
Despite several attempts to improve school performance, Oshana retains its position among the regions with the worst performance in national examinations.
The regional director for education in the Oshana Region, Hileni Amukana, last year declared a 'state of emergency' in her region but even with money spent to improve performance, the region failed to improve.
This was revealed at a meeting held at Ondangwa last week. Amukana said she missed a meeting of regional directors in Windhoek in order to talk to regional education officials about the “embarrassing” 2016 exam results.
“During the last academic year we were exploring and trying to understand the current status of education, arts and culture delivery in the region. At the beginning of this year, the directorate continued with introspection and identified a couple of challenges that impeded the achievement of expected targets and the smooth running of our educational institutions,” Amukana said.
In the 2016 grade 10 examinations the region retained its second position for a third consecutive year.
In the grade 12 ordinary level examinations, however, the region was in 13th place for the second year, while it slipped from eighth position to tenth in the grade 12 higher level results.
“This is pathetic. We held series of meetings in an attempt to interrogate our performance and craft regional strategies that will help improve our academic performance with immediate effect, but we failed. Our target was 75% in each subject at each school, but it was not reached,” Amukana said.
She said training was offered to principals, heads of department, education administrators, school board members and school inspectors last year.
“I was supposed to be in Windhoek to attend the education directors' budget meeting, but I opted to talk to you about our poor performance. Shamefully, our remaining 11 schools are not appearing in the top 100. Even worse, five of our secondary schools are ranked among the least performing 10 secondary schools in the country,” she said.
Her deputy, Gerhard Ndafenongo, told teachers to do all they can to boost performance.
He said regions such as Oshikoto, Omusati and Ohangwena were doing well although they did not have education facilities such as university campuses and vocational training centres.
“Please let us make use of these institutions that we have to bring results.
“It does not matter what strategy you are going to use, all we need is results. If they are saying a 'militant approach' is working for St Boniface College, let us also try it. You can even divide those learners among yourselves and see how you will help them. All we want is results,” Ndafenongo urged.
“If you cannot perform, I can get my hands dirty. I was a teacher before and I can always be a teacher. If you fail to deliver, I can get to the class myself,” Amukana said.
ILENI NANDJATO
The regional director for education in the Oshana Region, Hileni Amukana, last year declared a 'state of emergency' in her region but even with money spent to improve performance, the region failed to improve.
This was revealed at a meeting held at Ondangwa last week. Amukana said she missed a meeting of regional directors in Windhoek in order to talk to regional education officials about the “embarrassing” 2016 exam results.
“During the last academic year we were exploring and trying to understand the current status of education, arts and culture delivery in the region. At the beginning of this year, the directorate continued with introspection and identified a couple of challenges that impeded the achievement of expected targets and the smooth running of our educational institutions,” Amukana said.
In the 2016 grade 10 examinations the region retained its second position for a third consecutive year.
In the grade 12 ordinary level examinations, however, the region was in 13th place for the second year, while it slipped from eighth position to tenth in the grade 12 higher level results.
“This is pathetic. We held series of meetings in an attempt to interrogate our performance and craft regional strategies that will help improve our academic performance with immediate effect, but we failed. Our target was 75% in each subject at each school, but it was not reached,” Amukana said.
She said training was offered to principals, heads of department, education administrators, school board members and school inspectors last year.
“I was supposed to be in Windhoek to attend the education directors' budget meeting, but I opted to talk to you about our poor performance. Shamefully, our remaining 11 schools are not appearing in the top 100. Even worse, five of our secondary schools are ranked among the least performing 10 secondary schools in the country,” she said.
Her deputy, Gerhard Ndafenongo, told teachers to do all they can to boost performance.
He said regions such as Oshikoto, Omusati and Ohangwena were doing well although they did not have education facilities such as university campuses and vocational training centres.
“Please let us make use of these institutions that we have to bring results.
“It does not matter what strategy you are going to use, all we need is results. If they are saying a 'militant approach' is working for St Boniface College, let us also try it. You can even divide those learners among yourselves and see how you will help them. All we want is results,” Ndafenongo urged.
“If you cannot perform, I can get my hands dirty. I was a teacher before and I can always be a teacher. If you fail to deliver, I can get to the class myself,” Amukana said.
ILENI NANDJATO
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