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Namibia's Language Policy Is 'Poisoning' Its Children

Namibia's language policy of using English as the primary language of instruction in schools has failed according to a recent report. A leaked government test found that 98% of Namibia's teachers are not proficient in English, the language of instruction. While English was adopted after independence to unite the country's many ethnic groups, the government failed to adequately train teachers for whom English is a second or third language. As a result, about half of 16-year-old students failed their exams in 2010. A recent study found the use of English as the medium of instruction is a major problem that has been overlooked, as only 8% of Namibians actually speak English as their primary language. The report calls for allowing

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108 views4 pages

Namibia's Language Policy Is 'Poisoning' Its Children

Namibia's language policy of using English as the primary language of instruction in schools has failed according to a recent report. A leaked government test found that 98% of Namibia's teachers are not proficient in English, the language of instruction. While English was adopted after independence to unite the country's many ethnic groups, the government failed to adequately train teachers for whom English is a second or third language. As a result, about half of 16-year-old students failed their exams in 2010. A recent study found the use of English as the medium of instruction is a major problem that has been overlooked, as only 8% of Namibians actually speak English as their primary language. The report calls for allowing

Uploaded by

Mustafa khatib
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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http://www.theguardian.

com/education/2012/jan/10/namibia-english-crisis

Namibia's language policy is 'poisoning' its


children
English has been the medium of instruction in most of Namibia's classrooms for nearly
20 years, but with teachers shown to be failing in competency tests, calls for change are
mounting

Self help ... secondary students from the Himba tribe of northern Namibia
compare notes. Photograph: Alexander Joe/AFP
Denver Kisting
Tuesday 10 January 2012 09.00 EST
Namibia's commitment to English as the main language of education has been
undermined by revelations that 98% of the southern African country's
teachers are not sufficiently proficient in the language.

Leaked results of government tests carried out last year indicated that all but
2% of teachers need to undergo further training in basic English.

Up to 30 languages are spoken in Namibia, 14 of which have a full


orthography, but in 1990, when the country gained independence from South
Africa, Afrikaans, which had functioned as a lingua franca, was jettisoned in
favour of English. Though spoken by a small minority, the adoption of English
as the language of school instruction was seen by the new government as a
break with the colonial past and a means of unifying the country.
But experts say that the government has failed to provide adequate training to
teaching staff for whom English is a second and even third language.

Andrew Matjila, a retired school teacher and former politician, said that the
language policy, in place for over 20 years, had failed to deliver widespread
competence. He said public figures, such as politicians, struggled with the
language and that the limited language skills of teachers had "poisoned
thousands of children".

Adolf de Klerk, another commentator on education, said there was a direct


link between the low English language skills of teachers and students' exam
results. Nearly 50% of 16-year-olds failed the junior secondary school
certificate in 2010. He called for "drastic" action to be taken.

Researcher Priscilla Harris, author of a recent study, claims that "the medium
of instruction used in schools is a major cause for concern which the
government has overlooked".

Harris said the post-independence adoption of English was "a challenging


decision", because "only 8% [of Namibians] are English speakers, whereas the
rest of the population use their home language and Afrikaans as the language
of communication in their daily lives".
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Close to 23,000 teachers sat an English language proficiency test last
September as part of an education ministry strategy to identify further
training needs.

The test, compiled and evaluated by the University of Namibia, assessed


comprehension, grammar and writing skills. In the writing section, teachers
were required to construct four complete sentences.

Results from a leaked report indicate that more than 70% of teachers in senior
secondary schools cannot read and write basic English. Among junior
secondary teachers 63% have a poor grasp of English, which is jeopardising
their teaching, the report said.
Even the 18% of teachers who scored between 75% and 92% made mistakes
with capital letters and punctuation, subject-verb agreement, singular and
plural forms and articles.

Another damning finding was that some teachers struggled "to fill in personal
data required on the front of the answer sheet". This included basic biographic
information.

Abraham Iyambo, the minister of education, tried to downplay the results


when they were leaked to the press in November.

In a statement to parliament Iyambo claimed that the results had been


misrepresented. The test, he said, was not meant "to fail or pass a teacher.
Neither was it a means of firing teachers; it was diagnostic in nature."

He added that "the test is intended to determine the training needs of teachers
and place them in the appropriate continuing professional development
course".

Matjila called for the immediate provision of training for teachers, saying that
without intervention "the danger that is coming to Namibia is unimaginable".

Priscilla Harris was the lead researcher on a report publish last month by the
Urban Trust of Namibia (UTN), a local NGO, which is highly critical of the
current language education policy. The report, called Language in schools in
Namibia – the missing link in educational achievement?, claims that the
policy in place since 1993 "was essential to drive the strategic decision for
English in education. But this massive decision was made without the required
resources being in place."

"Teachers were not ready, could not express themselves and were not trained
in English," Harris said, adding that the curriculum, syllabuses and materials
linked to a successful outcome were not made available.

Harris points to higher success rates of school students in South Africa


andBotswana, two of Namibia's neighbours where children learn in their
home language.
"The challenge of the decision to use English as the national language still
deeply affects the levels of success in education. Some of these difficulties
relate to skills," Harris said.

She cites evidence of poorer results in maths in classes taught by older


teachers who have low English levels, compared to classes taught by younger
teachers whose competence in English, thanks to better training, is higher.

"But language stands out throughout the research as a major problem," she
said.

Harris recommends that learners should be allowed to be taught in their


mother tongue until at least the end of primary school at age 11.

Momentum is growing behind a challenge to the current language policy. After


a national conference on education held last June, calls to revisit the language
policy were heard within government circles.

UTN wants education provision to be more closely matched to the needs of


learners. It wants "urgent in-service and pre-service training" for teachers who
teach home languages, along with "access to technical support in those
languages with time and resources set aside for study leave".

The government is yet to respond to UTN's report.

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