Equal Opportunities and Quality in Secondary Education - Part 5

Overview

In the previous article (4), practical recommendations were proposed for the design of the job-oriented curriculum for secondary education in Namibia.

In this final article of the series, practical recommendations are proposed for the implementation of the job-oriented curriculum for secondary education in Namibia as well as the consequences of not implementing a secondary job-oriented curriculum in Namibia.

Part 5: Recommendations for the Implementation of a Job-oriented Curriculum

1. Launch in conjunction with partners like the NTA, a campaign that promotes the status, relevancy and envisaged system features of the job-oriented stream. Present also career guidance information at schools. Possible donors and private education providers must be invited to elicit their support for the establishing of job-oriented schools that apply the new national syllabi.

2. Organize a national conference to discuss drafts on the table for a phase 1, 2 and 3 job-oriented curriculum implementation in schools.

3. Manage administrative changes: The policies and all other factors that clearly impact negatively on the attaining of quality job-education for all, should be addressed. New policies must be introduced to suit the needs of the job stream, for instance, hiring job experts without a teaching qualification; policy regarding salaries; policy regarding workloads; teacher-learner ratio formulas; funding of schools; the role of schools in society, e.g. ‘night school’ courses for community development (using the new job facilities); the development and use of school property by parents/ business people; several issues of assessment, e.g. no automatic promotion; performance appraisals; teacher licensing; whole school auditing and reward system.

4. Plan the instructional management:  Provide appointed job experts with no teaching qualifications with ‘Instructional Management files’ which contain all relevant information about duties, code of conduct, time tables, practical training, school rules, and so forth.

5. Appraise the national training needs for appointed instructors for phase 1, 2, and 3 of implementing the career curriculum in regions. The qualifications, experience of job experts, fair salaries and school duties must be determined.

6. Appraise the required physical facilities needed for implementing the different job-oriented training in towns in phase 1, 2 and 3. For instance, the former Technical High Schools were designed for vocational education and those facilities may be useful.

   Modern pre-fabricated buildings could be used to build additional classrooms for schools which has open space available at a fraction of the normal concrete building costs.

   The ideal would be that secondary schools offer 3-5 job training courses which implies the need for equipped classrooms. Job-training classrooms must be spacious enough to accommodate the practical training stations and desk space for theory teaching. All secondary schools (not only one per region) should eventually include a ‘job stream’ which offer job-oriented training most needed by a town and region.  Ideally newly designed job-oriented schools need to be planned and new plots for such schools need to be made available.

   The expert and financial input from business people, international donors and municipalities will be paramount.  

7. Identify the required teaching-learning resources needed for the national job-oriented curriculum implementation of the first phase, second phase and third phase per region. Use the job syllabi to identify the needed teaching-learning resources per job and per school.

8. Apart from the initial job needs analysis per town, costing of the implementation of the vocational stream per phase needs to consider the following: Renovation of and new Facilities and Equipment; Staff related costs; Teaching and learning resources; Assessment practices; the quality Marketing of the ‘career stream status’ project; Syllabus development of the core and elective subjects; Maintenance and Insurance, and so forth. In the end the envisaged positive impact of the new job stream on the overall development and stability of the country, cannot be stopped on account of reasonable costs involved. The psychological, social, political and economic growth that might not take place without a new career track would be far more costly to individuals and the state. (See also consequences later)

9. The Ministry of Education mainly finances the secondary job education, but the Ministry of Labour could also contribute partly. Municipalities of towns could be requested to contribute to the establishment of the job stream option since it would benefit the general development and reduce social problems in towns. In Namibia there is the VET levy that could be applied to job education in secondary schools as well. Parents or business persons could be enticed to invest money in proper job-oriented facilities, by having some schools or job training facilities named after them.

10. Start providing the physical facilities for phase 1 and equip classrooms with the relevant job training equipment and materials.

11. Advertise to procure relevant instructors and learners. Select teaching and administrative staff on merit. Experienced and qualified persons should be appointed as teachers at market related salaries, no matter whether such persons have a teaching qualification or not. In-service training linked to performance appraisals and teacher licensing could support the development of teaching abilities. 

12. Schools are to be advised on which jobs to offer, based on a national survey of current and future occupational needs and skills for both genders in towns and regions. If specific job needs of rural towns are addressed by that rural schools, people do not have to flock to other towns to find work, and they stay with their families and have accommodation.

13. Provide schools with assistance where necessary for the compilation of 5-day time tables. Also provide schools with materials to test learners’ interests and abilities for particular jobs on offer at schools.

14. Once the job-education kicks off, in-service training needs of instructors in schools should be researched, e.g. with regards to teaching skills, Entrepreneurship, Life Skills, RME, Career guidance and instruments to test learners’ career interests and abilities.

15. Job-oriented schools should use their instructors to organize ‘workplace learning or job experience’ for 1 or 2 weeks during holidays in the grade 11 year. The instructors could also assist learners to get interviews for jobs in their industry after completion of their training.

16. A national auditing and reward system should be introduced for all job curriculum aspects to establish a proper control and data gathering mechanism that guides improvements.

17. Upon graduation in the job stream, national feedback on the career curriculum must be obtained from every grade 11 group in schools. In addition, within 6 months of graduation, feedback must also be obtained from relevant employers about the effectiveness of the career stream in preparing learners for the particular jobs and the world of work. This feedback serves as input to improve the job-oriented curriculum design and implementation.

18. Job-oriented schools could offer their job training also to adult members of the community via ‘night school or evening courses’ and thus upgrade workers’ skills while making money out of fees for their services. Such schools should then have a night school principal responsible for the ‘continuing education programme’ or ‘night school education’. Having adult education courses changes the role of schools in the community. Adults enrolling for these night school programs must be 16 years and older and pay a minimum fee for the courses.

19.  Before phase 2 is implemented the NTA could investigate relevant new jobs of the international ‘green jobs’ drive, e.g. electrical car mechanic and compile such green job standards for Namibia as well.  

Consequences of not implementing a secondary job-oriented curriculum in Namibia 

Resistance to change is human, but progressive change in order to move forward, is also inevitable. Ministries are the leaders that plan strategically to manage the future of a country. The educational information in this document supports changes to the junior and secondary curriculum for the benefit of individuals and the country. The Namibian low pass rates in grade 10 and 11 and the yearly growing unemployment (41% currently) due to the fact that the current academic oriented school curriculum does not harness the abilities / intelligences of many students, can no longer be ignored.

If a career stream is not established, the consequences could involve the following:

• Petitions by angry parents and community members and organizations

• Strikes by learners and teachers and demolition of schools

• Growing numbers of unemployment with possible revolutionary actions

• Social problems (e.g. poverty, pandemics, stealing, corruption, drug abuse, rape) will escalate and cause huge costs for the state, which could have been spent on job-education in the first place

• Slow economic growth or even economic collapse, due to lack of competent manpower and low productivity

• Fewer entrepreneurial successes

• Less gender equality and job creation for women

• Lower competitiveness of Namibia on the global market

• Worsening relations of the business sector with the Ministry of Education / government, resulting in less financial support for education

• Lower status of Namibia in the eyes of ILO, UNESCO and other international donors

• Unacceptable poor quality of life for a large percentage of the population

It is time to address our education system!

Dr. Frikkie Engelbrecht

Windhoek, Namibia

Email: dr.ugro3906@gmail.com

References

Engelbrecht, F. D. J. 2007. A Framework for the design and implementation of  competency-based teacher education programmes at the University of Namibia.        Ph. D Dissertation. Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch, SA.