Education is life

Thousands of children not in school

MORE than 100 000 children do not attend school in Namibia, despite free primary and secondary education.

This was revealed in an out-of-school study the education ministry conducted in collaboration with Unicef and the Unesco Institute for Statistics in 2015.

The aim of the study was to determine why so many children still do not complete secondary education, despite progressive policies and increased access to education.

According to the study, 103 768 children are not in school. This number includes 13 082 at pre-primary level; 36 084 at primary school level; 25 308 at junior secondary, and 29 294 at senior secondary level.

Moreover, the study shows that 99 200 pupils in primary, junior secondary and senior secondary school levels are at risk of dropping out of school.

The study highlighted a lack of parental support and social protection; poverty; learner pregnancy; disability; grade repetition; as well as access to water, sanitation and electricity as reasons for the startling out-of-school figures.

It recommends, among others, that early grades be taught closer to home; greater attention be given to sex education to reduce learner pregnancy; the improvement of existing primary school-feeding programmes and also their expansion to secondary schools.

“Further attention needs to be given to make sure that the official pregnancy policy is implemented and supported by teachers and education of cials,” the report stated, adding that the policy is being blamed by many for 'creating' the learner pregnancy problem in schools because discrimination makes it dif cult for pupils who have fallen pregnant to return to school, or if they do, to be fully accepted again.

In addition, it found that the restriction on Grade 10 failures to continue their schooling in public schools needs to change, or at least the age limit of the failed students needs to be changed.

“This is an important way of making sure children do not drop out of school whilst there are chances to progress further,” the study report added.

Education, arts and culture permanent secretary Sanet Steenkamp said the education authority is set to convene a conference next week in a bid to cut the out-of-school rate.

“We will focus on certain factors which may push children out of school or put them more at risk of never attending school during the two-day conference in the hope of improving the situation of children,” she revealed.

Steenkamp said the conference, scheduled for 23 to 24 June, is meant to come up with a set of solutions with clear time-lines for a progressive uptake of the recommendations contained in the out-of-school study.