Andrew Kathindi
The Ministry of Education has admitted that it was ill prepared to implement the online education demands brought about by the coronavirus outbreak.
This comes as student learning was brought to a grinding halt countrywide due to the government’s decision to close schools to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The ministry has been battling to restart classes through e-learning.
“I must admit, we were so caught on addressing text book needs, but COVID-19 gave us the opportunity to modernize and to find alternative teaching and learning modalities. We are entering into deep discussions with the Commonwealth of Open Learning for an iCloud, but in hindsight we could have been more prepared,” Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture Executive Director, Sanet Steenkamp told Windhoek Observer.
While the pandemic has negatively affected teaching globally, it has been felt particularly in Namibia where only 13,000 out of 804,000 learners have access to e-learning platforms. There has been a general call for public schools to be more technologically efficient. This call has not been answered.
“The pandemic has been an eye-opener on the issues at hand and the ministry is working on getting to a satisfactory level so that if another potential disaster should strike, the devastation would not have such a severe impact on the education sector,” Steenkamp said.
“We are now in engaging Namcol to work with our teachers on this issue. We also have to revive our Kopano educational platform as it is a bit stagnant at the moment. That is where we can make a provision for children and teachers from pre-primary and up. We have the Namibia Reads app, where all the books and quizzes are free to the value of N$1 million.”
Kopano Education Forum is an inter-institutional online community of Namibian education stakeholders that serves as a support system, as well as a hub for educational innovation, inspiration and new ideas. Its main objective is to facilitate discussions and communication amongst education stakeholders.
As for the leaners that have not been reached via e-learning during the lockdown, as reports have shown many of their parents do not even have a cellphone, Steenkamp said guidelines will be issued by this Friday for teachers to work together with education officers to produce study material that leaners can pick up and work on and then return.
“Students who have not been reached will have to find a way to get to their teachers to get these materials.”
Steenkamp said the ministry has been in discussion with the telecommunication industry and have received presentations regarding models of e-learning.
“We are working very closely with MICT and the Ministry of Higher Education. However, we are aware of the challenges, that even if the ministry availed data bundles we know only a certain percentage of teachers have smart phones, so even if we do provide data bundles, we have to be realistic in terms of expansion of the internet services in the country and for that you need a true collaborative efforts challenge,” she said.
Meanwhile, for many parents returning to work as the country has entered Stage 2 of the State of Emergency period, finding care for their children, who must stay at home, has been problematic and according to Minister of Education Anna Nghipondoka, this is not something the ministry considered as they have been looking at the bigger picture.
“Every decision and strategy being taken by government is looking at where the disease could come from, so I’m sorry to say but it is up to the parents to see how these children can be taken care of. It is a matter of us being responsible, accountable and to look at the picture at hand and appreciate the issue we are dealing with as a nation,” she said.
