Namibia

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

Managing Change

Namibian Approach

INTRODUCTION  Historical legacy  Education based on segregation and racism  Undemocratic  Unrepresentative  Inaccessible to majority

Transformation (Change Became inevitable) Four Major Goals  =Access  =Equity  =Quality  =Democracy

Why? Goals  To address apartheid legacy  -To transform education system  To open up schools -access  Equitable distribution of educational resources  Quality education for all  Stakeholder participation -Democracy

Initiatives for change  1. Namibia Vision 2030  2. Education Training Sector Improvement Program(ETSIP)  3. National Standards and performance Indicators for Schools in Namibia(NSPI)  3. Clustering System  4. The National Curriculum for Basic Education

Namibia Vision 2030 Prosperity,Harmony, Peace & Political Stability

Namibia Vision 2030  -Namibia ’ s most significant statement on National Development  Long term development framework for the country to be prosperous and industrialized nation, develop by her human resources, enjoying peace, harmony and political stability.

The Goal of Namibia Vision 2030  To improve the quality of life of the citizens to the level of their counterparts in the developed world.

Objectives  1.Namibia to be fair gender responsive , caring and committed nation.

 2.Create effective and democratic political system   3.-Transform Namibia into an industrialized country 4.Ensure development of ‘ natural capital ” and sustainable utilization.

 5. Transformation of Namibia into a knowledge-based society.

ETSIP

ETSIP  Is a fifteen year strategic plan(2006 2020) developed in response to demands of Vision 2030.

ETSIP- Main aim  To improve quality of education and for it to be effective,relevant,responsive in addition to creating equality in educational opportunity.

ETSIP 9 Sub-Programs  1. Early Childhood Development and Pre Primary Education  2. General Education  3. Vocational Education and Training  4. Tertiary Education and Training  5. Adult Education and Lifelong Learning

ETSIP 9 Sub-programs (Continues)  6. HIV/AIDS  7. ICTs in Education  8. Knowledge creation and innovation  9. -Capacity development

NSPI  Tool initiated by Ministry of Education to monitor, evaluate and support by bringing Namibian schools at the same level.

NSPI: Seven key areas  1. Provision of resources  2. Curriculum and attainment  3. The teaching and learning process  4. The school as a social unit  5. -Management and leadership of school  6. Links with parents and community  7. Links with other schools and region.

Clustering system in Namibia  Grouping of schools that are geographically close and accessible to each other.

 Headed by a cluster-centre principal.

Role of clustering 

Improving the quality of teaching and learning

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Management applications – assistance

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Empowerment

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Improved efficiency

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Staff allocation to address norms

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Training

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Community involvement

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Planning & access to schooling

The National Curriculum for Basic Education  Introduced in 2010-to be inline with ETSIP Purpose of revision was an effort to make it more relevant to the needs of Namibia & to improve the quality of education.

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National Curriculum: Aims:

 Serves as official policy for teaching,learning and assessment.

 Giving direction to planning, organizing & implementing teaching and learning.

 Teaching & learning directed at developing high order thinking skills.

How is change being managed?

 1. Training and support  2. Monitoring and evaluation  3. Decentralization

Training & Support  National Institute for Educational Development (NIED)  Advisory Services  Regional Training Committees  International Partners (Volunteers)

Monitoring & Evaluation  Through National External School Evaluation Program  School Self Evaluation (SSE)  Teacher Self Evaluation (TSE)

Decentralization  Extension of regions (From 7 to 13).

Each headed by Regional Directors.

New structures in Regions Clustering School boards (Governance)

Map of 13 Regions

Recent research on managing change  Aipinge  -Clustering  Johannes  - NSPI  Mungunda Participative Management  Shekupakela-Nelulu Learners involvement in School Governance  Niitembu  -School Governance

Participative Management: Findings.

 Stakeholders involvement in decision making.

 Participative leadership not to be confine to decision-making only.

 Added advantage of enabling the establishment of common goal,vision & mission.

Mungunda: recommendations  Collegial process and strategies to be sustain and effectively manage by way of ongoing transformational leadership.

 Leadership and Management programs direly needed in Namibia.

Clustering: Aipinge Findings  Leadership & Management approaches employed have a significant effect on the cluster’s functioning.

 CCPs provided professional and academic support to teachers and principals.  CCP coordinate and organize cluster activities effectively.

 Leadership is distributed among cluster members through sub-committees.

Aipinge Recommendations  Formalize school cluster system(SCS) national policy.

 Provision of resources,infrastructure and other technical support  Develop a tailor-made program for cluster leadership and management in the curriculum.

Shekupakela-Nelulu: School Governance: Findings  A notion of school governance widely accepted.

 Challenges with regard to practice.

 Absence of national documents that outlines the roles and functions of Learners Representative Council(LRS)  Schools have little direction about the role of LRCs-given little attention.

 LRCs not regarded as true role players.

Governance: Recommendations  National policy be drafted that legitimates the role of students in school governance.

 Policy to provide direction.

 Training programs for LRCs  Further research

Niitembu:Governance Findings  Lack of understanding of policy and responsibility.

 Low level of basic qualification.

 Positive involvement.

 Teamwork.

Niitembu: Recommendations  More Training of SB – preferably in local languages.

 Improvement in literacy level of parental representation on SB.

Johannes: NSPI=Findings  Good progress in the implementation of NSPIs in few schools.

 SSEs,TSEs,SDPs & target settings conducted almost always supply unreliable information.

 Need for continues training of principals ,teachers and parents with regard to implementation of NSPI.

 Lack of monitoring.

NSPI (recommendations)  Principals to be provided with support to equip them with necessary skills to effectively implement change.

 Intensive training for all principals,HODs,teachers & school Board members.  Embarking on vigorous awareness campaign directed to school leaders to explain the benefits of an honest School Self Evaluation.  Lack of leadership and management skills on part of school leaders to be addressed for provision of quality education.

Conclusion  Namibia has embarked on number of initiatives.

 There is a general level of acceptance for those initiatives that were introduced which is visible through stakeholders cooperation.

 But in the same, there are challenges in terms of policy implementation and budgetary allocation.

 Yes, we are quite positive and please with the way that change has been managed.

Thank You