Astute 2 Could lack of Education be the root cause of poverty? In a developing country like Namibia, we have a lot of people who are based in rural areas. Due to this, the country is still overcrowded by a number of unemployed youths, which are the parents of tomorrow. Most Namibians know the word freedom and peace, but the discourse continues. Are we really enjoying this freedom and the peace that we are endlessly preaching about?
The answers to this question might be more than the verses in the bible. Furthermore, our beautiful country is jam-packed with needy people, so our newsflashes are always packed with striking workers demanding increments, unemployed struggle kids demanding employment and news of the vulnerable and destitute that needs assistance.
However, poverty and vulnerability are not the only reasons why we might not be a productive Nation.
The education system can be a contributing factor, directly or indirectly, as the reason why we are so poor and why there are so many graduates without jobs.
Still one can ask himself/herself – “why do so many drop out in schools? Why so many failures in schools?” This shouldn''t discourage us, because Education is life-long learning, aimed at preparing one for one''s future endeavors.
Even though not everyone has attended school, the majority had an opportunity to attend school though not everyone has succeeded to go up to grade 12 or to a tertiary institution. However, as per “Education for All (EFA) national plan of action 2002-2015” after independence the government declared education as a first national “priority” among other priorities and the target of 80% was achieved within the first 10 years of independence.
Meanwhile we have a few individuals who have not even passed through the door of a class room at all, but this does not mean such people do not have the potential to produce development and be fruitful in their lives.
However for those who have had the chance of being learners, they experienced that life was challenging.
Even though our education system had curricula and well stipulated policies from independence to date, these policies were and are still not really being adhered to.
At some of the schools and in some communities teachers have been not been and are not models at all, even cases where teachers have been in intimate relationships with their learners pop up now and again.
Again, schools in rural areas were viewed as training centres, but not education centres that are preparing people for future survival. It was more like the reason to go to school is only to know how to read and speak English.
This is one of the things that our parents failed to understand and it was once more viewed that education is the teachers duty, which means if learners are failing, it is no one else''s problem, but the teachers'' problem. At those times when it was more like dawn to independence, only few could understand that education starts informally from birth until at its formal stage when one starts attending school.
Apart from all of those, freedom and peace seems to be news to many and they might still not be enjoyed or practiced by everyone in Namibia.
According to many scholars, freedom is the right and capacity of people to determine their own actions, in a community which is able to provide for the full development of human beings and peace is defined as a state of harmony characterised by lack of violence, conflict and the freedom from the fear of violence.
The teacher-centred education system which was transferring knowledge to learners could be one of the issues that prevented some individuals from finishing their studies. The issue of unqualified teachers can also be one of those factors as to why the majority do not make it either to VTC or University.
Corporal punishment has never created peace or professional relationships between learners and their teachers.
Learners had the fear of their teachers and this fear resulted in some learners being anxious and hating their school subjects too.
Furthermore, the fear learners had for teachers resulted in some dropouts at schools, which seem to have had a negative impact on our current education system.
Learners have never enjoyed their freedoms and practiced their democratic freedom of speech in some Namibian schools.
Even though we have the MoE Sector Policy on Inclusive Education, a number of learners experienced some form of exclusion in education and some were even bullied by their peers and some of the teachers.
A very good examples of forms of exclusion in our schools could be; grouping learners in classes according to their performances e.g. all the A and B classes in our times were regarded as only for smart students and in F and G (8F,9F,10F etc.) were the classes where you found a number of passive learners – certain government schools only admitted learners who had passed with certain points.
Learners who do not have a certain dress code were prevented from attending some educational functions like; Farewell parties, welcoming shows and funny days etc.
That is why everyone had some distinctive reason, as to why they did not perform well at school, or why they dropped out of school.
Exclusion and bullying in education are the central teething troubles why we have so many pupils with poor performance, so many dropouts in our schools.
Not every teacher has time to acknowledge learners, but some teachers believe in competition among learners.
*Vaino Ndapolifa is 2nd year studying towards a Bachelor''s degree (honours) in Education at the University of Namibia.