• Education

Only N$19 per month per learner

- 2023-01-10 15:06:00

While the 2022 results for grade 11 and grade 12 learners left the country shocked, the failure rate cannot only be ascribed to the new curriculum and there are many more facets to consider.
According to Dr Eva Panduleni Beukes, many issues contributed to the failure rates, “and one of the biggest issues was that teachers were not well prepared for it”.
She says while teachers are blamed, the education minister should take responsibility and assess what the ministry has done wrong. “This lies in the way the ministry introduced the new curriculum and how they prepared teachers for it. Proper training is needed.”
Beukes added that at the very least, teachers gained experience last year and that they can build on this going forward. However, except for the new curriculum, the education sector has always faced many challenges, including a lack of resources. “The resources are abysmal. There is no other word for it. Students don’t have textbooks because the allocated budget only makes provision for N$19 per month per student,” she says.
According to her, when we look at local textbooks, there are many mistakes to be found. “Then the content editor is the author. How can you edit your work? Even top academics need to be peer-reviewed,” Beukes continued.
Another decade-old problem is the number of students in a class. “With between 40 and 50 students in a class, children are bound to be distracted. Everyone has different concentration spans. Even controlling a class of that size is a challenge.”
Furthermore, she says there is no room for individual care and attention for the students.
Working as a relief teacher last year, Beukes said that you work with different personalities, introverts and extroverts, and there are many learning methods yet there is just no capacity to enhance this with so many students.
“Serious intervention is needed for the whole school system. Not only grade 11 and 12 learners, but starting at primary level.”