Namibia battles with early childhood trainers

The Kunene Region has no competent early childhood development (ECD) trainers at 54% of its pre-school centres. This statistic for Namibia’s poorest region was made public yesterday by Dr Aune Victor, who is from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Speaking at a national ECD workshop taking place in Windhoek, Victor also shared statistics around enrolment. “In the country as a whole, the highest enrolment percentage was recorded for four to five year olds at 24.6%, dropping sharply to 18.7% for six and seven year olds,” she said. Enrolment rates for girls are slightly higher than for boys in all age groups. “Similar differences in enrolment rates between ages were found in all the regions,” said Victor during her presentation. She also advocated for a strong political leadership in the promotion of ECD education, in a country where only 41.4% of children have access to clean water. Information derived from the country’s 2011 census shows that 35.7% of children living in rural areas live in dire poverty, while 29.6% live in a household relying on a social grant as primary source of income. In light of this, Victor called for the integration of inclusive ECD programmes, which include health, early learning, playing, and birth registration, as well as child protection, in order to ensure quality education. She also called for the enhancement of human resources through capacity development by stakeholders, such as the University of Namibia (Unam) and others. Victor also said that meaningful parental and community engagement, especially father involvement, would make a difference. UNESCO ECD expert Yoshie Kaga emphasised the importance of early development, because schooling after Grade 2 only plays a minor role in creating or reducing gaps. According to Kaga, ECD nurtures the physical and mental health of children and reduces later reliance on the healthcare system and special support. “Early care and education has multiple benefits for life and society… it yields the greatest investment returns than any other levels of education and training,” Kaga said. According to UNESCO Country Representative Jean Pierre Ilboudo, there is a need to alter the overall image of the ECD profession in the country. Ilboudo also lamented the fact that most poorly trained teachers are still found teaching the lower grades of primary education. “Insufficient numbers of teachers specialising in this level of education have been trained, and a trend of prioritising the deployment of qualified teachers at higher levels is real,” said Ilboudo. The three-day workshop, which kicked off yesterday, is taking place in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, the Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Innovation and Unam. The workshop is taking place under the Funds-in-Trust agreement between UNESCO and the People’s Republic of China. JEMIMA BEUKES