Mr Alfred Iilukena, under-secretary: Formal Education
Q: Mr. Iilukena, can you please give us an indication whether the circular that has been sent to the regional directors and principals has the blessing of the Minister of Education?
A: Well, in our system I think there is no way we could have sent out the circular without having consulted the Minister, so, yes indeed.
Q: Minister Mbumba has therefore seen the circular and he has authorised it being sent out?
A: Yes, and I think it is fitting to say that the intention of the circular was to try and normalise the situation at the schools while a more lasting solution was still being looked at. In other words, on the announcement, I think the announcement was made on Thursday by the Minister and by Friday all schools were inundated by Grade 10 failures knocking on their doors, thereby disrupting the classes that were already ongoing and what we needed to do was to balance between the two and to say, OK, while we are still pursuing the announcement that was made by the Minister, we also need to allow the classes that have already started to continue.
Before we are going to find a strategy that we are going to use, we must ensure that those that are coming to register, cause very little disruption of teaching and learning that others are already undergoing.
It was necessary to point out to the schools that the best strategy to use is what we’ve been using all along until such a time that the Minister comes back with a more articulated strategy as to how this will be handled.
Q: Mr. Iilukena, in all practical terms, will Grade 10s be able to repeat?
A: You know, that decision will be taken elsewhere and an announcement as was indicated by our Public Relations Officer will be made once all factors have been factored in and the strategy on how this can be done, agreed on.
So, I can’t say they will all be allowed to repeat at formal education or not. It will depend on the options that the Government is weighing as the best way to proceed. So, once that decision has been taken, the public will be informed accordingly as the circular indicates. Once this is resolved everyone else will know exactly how to proceed on this issue.
Q: What time span are we talking about before Namibia can expect a formal announcement on this?
A: Well, at the Ministry we have been hard at work and we have done everything possible in terms of suggestions and options and so on and we are hoping that probably, hopefully during the course of this week or before the end of this week an announcement will be made as to how we will proceed from here on.
Q: In the meantime though, you do not want grade 10 pupils to go back to the schools. They have to go to NAMCOL. Is that correct?
A: Yes. The instruction to the regions was to say we have two scenarios here. One is to hang around while we register them in formal education but we still have to find places and all that. It takes a while. In other words, an announcement is made today. Certain things have to be put in place before that announcement can be realised and those certain things that need to be put in place take a while.
We want to make sure that these learners do not lose out completely, so if they register with NAMCOL, we know where they are. And if the final decision is such that the strategy to implement requires them to move from NAMCOL to somewhere else, that can be done, because we now know where they are and they will not have lost out totally.
Whereas if we have said OK, hang around until we don’t know when, maybe it is something that we are discussing for a month or so to try and make sure all other implications are properly sorted out before the actual implementation. In the meantime they are losing out, because the current classes in grade 10 are already full and I think also what is critical for me to point out, is that there is a misunderstanding somehow between repeating fulltime and what you get from NAMCOL.
You see, when you repeat fulltime, what it means is that all these kids that wrote the examinations in 2007 got points, either 19 or 20 points. If they were to go back fulltime, it means those 20 points they got in the 2007 examinations will all disappear. They have to start up fresh again from zero. In other words they will be required to take nine subjects.
Whereas if they go to NAMCOL, those 20 points they acquired will still remain on their records and all they need to do is just add two or three more subjects to improve on the 20 and make it 26 or 30 or whatever depending on the marks that the child will get. So if you look at the two you will find that the advantage with NAMCOL is you are topping up.
You are not required to take all nine subjects. You choose those that you want to improve on. Whereas if you repeat fulltime, you are starting from a zero base and there is no guarantee that you are going to pass. And if you fail to make it a second time around, probably this time around you might even drop with some few points, worse than in the previous examination that you sat for.
So if you compare the two, for me I would see the advantage that I get by taking three or four subjects that I concentrate on rather than taking nine. So these are all things that one has to weigh.
But at the end of the day what we are saying is that once the discussions have been completed and the details worked out, we will come back through the media to announce that. This is the position and this is how we are going to proceed from here on.
Q: Mr. Iilukena, just for clarity’s sake, because there seems to be a lot of confusion about this whole issue. On the one hand you have the circular from the Ministry telling pupils to go to NAMCOL to register, emphasising that the existing policy of electing Grade 10 repeaters which has been in place for years is currently still standing, in other words you have that circular on the one hand.
On the other hand, you have President Hifikepunye Pohamba saying at a rally at the coast the weekend that all Grade 10s who failed will be allowed to repeat. What is the situation between these two statements?
A: As far as I’m concerned, I don’t see it as a contradiction, because it still addresses the same thing. All we are saying is that in order for that to happen there are certain technicalities that need to be worked out. Until those are worked out and then looked at and agreed upon, those technicalities will dictate as to what is the degree of the full implementation of that decision.
It emulates what our interests are, because we don’t want a Namibian child out there on the streets because they cannot get education. That’s the first and foremost. So everything is being done to ensure that we address the situation in the best amicable way that we can.
Q: Mr. Iilukena, you’ve been quoted in the media as saying that to accommodate 16 000 or more Grade 10s repeating will require an extra 457 classrooms and more than 2 700 teachers. Taking that into account, how practical is it for Grade 10s to expect that they will be allowed to repeat in the formal system this year?
A: Well, for me as a civil servant, all I’m saying is that if I’m told today that this is the decision and these are the implications, we know them and go full out and implement, then we go ahead and implement.
But the point being that those were the things that we were trying to point out and say these need to be worked out, because we could easily say let them all repeat as from the day the announcement was made, but then we still need to recruit teachers. We still need to add some other materials and so all these things take time to put in place.
I think all we are saying is while this decision is being worked out, we are trying to see the best strategy that can be deployed. We do not want these people to be hanging around without doing anything, so the best is we keep them in NAMCOL until such time that a final decision is taken on the technicalities of implementing and once that is done, we will inform them accordingly.
