The turnaround

Elizabeth Joseph After the ministry of education announced that upon the completion of grade 10, learners doing part-time will not be eligible to return to mainstream schooling for grade 11 under the new senior secondary curriculum, there has been a lot of confusion. “Any learner who completed part-time JSC grade 10 in 2019 will not be admitted to return to school as a full-time enrolled leaner for grade 11 in 2020.“More so, such learners will not be allowed to change into the revised senior secondary curriculum offered full-time at schools,” a circular from the executive director in the ministry of education, arts and culture, Sanet Steenkamp, stated.Though it seemed to be the perspective of senior staff at the ministry that learners must complete school in the curriculum they know, many parents wondered if this would push more learners to the streets as many tertiary institutions want only a grade 12 qualification. Steenkamp also announced that the current grade 12 National Senior Secondary Certificate would be phased out by the end of 2021.The LPM Student and Youth Command Element hosted a press conference where they appealed to the government to rethink this decision. “We strongly condemn the ministry and their decision to exclude the grade 10 learners. The government is depriving these children of a chance for an education. It is unfair to even think that this is the plan forward,” said Joyce Muzengua, SYCE chairperson at the Unam main campus. They were of the opinion that the streets will be full of children who wanted to study but failed to reach the threshold. The LPM Student and Youth Command Element added that the government needs to address institutions like Namcol to offer grade 10 on a full-time basis so that no one is let behind. The Postscript These were the sentiments of many Namibians before but now the whole directive has changed.After several attempts to get information from the ministry, My Zone received another circular that attempted to clear up the confusion. The circular aims to shed light on some of the options that are available for leaners who were unsuccessful in re-entering into conventional schooling or grade 11. So what are your options? If you find yourself in this position, here are some options courtesy of the ministry of education. Option 1Do what you do, in the curriculum you’re in, to the best of your ability. What this means is, that if you’re in the current curriculum the ministry advises you to complete your education in this curriculum, which is the one you started with. “This will provide them with a more competitive advantage as they will stand a better chance to complete their secondary qualification with their current knowledge base, as opposed to starting with a new curriculum that would require leaners to master new content to which they have not previously been exposed to,” the circular states. Option 2This option allows learners to return to the mainstream full-time schooling if they have been a part of the 2019 cohort of candidates who sat for the grade 10 part-time JSC examination. They will then be able to return to grade 10 in 2020, as the first year of the secondary phase. Candidates will have to go to the regional director of education, arts and culture, to the regional examination officer for consideration in instances where the classroom space is available. Although this seems to be a light at the end of a dark tunnel for parents and candidates alike, the ministry is afraid that the second option might pose a challenge for other full-time students as well as for the ministry. “Candidates who were unsuccessful in full-time studies in 2018 could be three years senior to those learners who are currently grade 10 in 2020,” the circular reads. “Secondly, due to the removal of forced exit points more learners are progressing and this places some considerable strain on the already limited resources.”GuidelinesOnly learners who were full-time grade 10 JSC candidates in 2018 who did not meet the requirements of admission into the senior secondary, and subsequently enrolled in 2019 for part-time and obtained a minimum of 23 points in six subjects, may be allowed to apply for admission to the grade 10 revised curriculum for 2020. Their cases will be carefully looked into, but the ministry still feels that it would be more beneficial for part-time candidates to continue in the curriculum in which they started to avoid them being disadvantaged during competence gaps that would come from the non-exposure to the new curriculum.If the candidate still do not meet the promotion requirements at the end of 2020 they would have to repeat grade 10 again in 2021 because they did not do that curriculum before and will thus be treated like any other candidate in the mainstream full-time school system.

The turnaround

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Namibian Sun 2025-11-04

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The turnaround

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Namibian Sun 2025-11-04

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