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

Prosperity,Harmony, Peace & Political Stability 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 Management applications –assistance Empowerment Improved efficiency Staff allocation to address norms Training Community involvement 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. 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 Mungunda-Participative Management Johannes - NSPI 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