The Mt Kenya Times 
By: Silas Mwaudasheni Nande
Before Independence (Pre-1990)
The Namibian curriculum before independence was shaped by the apartheid regime, characterized by inequality and segregation. Education was divided along racial lines, with the Bantu Education system offering inferior education to the majority black population, focusing on basic literacy and manual labor skills. The curriculum emphasized rote learning, promoted Afrikaner nationalism, and excluded local culture and languages. It did not prepare learners for critical thinking or higher education, further entrenching systemic oppression and economic disparities.
After Independence (Post-1990)
Following independence in 1990, Namibia overhauled its curriculum to promote equity, inclusion, and quality education for all. The Education for All (EFA) framework became the foundation, emphasizing access, relevance, and democratic values. The new curriculum introduced a learner-centered approach, encouraged bilingual education, and integrated subjects like Life Skills and Namibian history to foster national identity. Efforts were made to align the curriculum with global trends, focusing on skills development, ICT, and vocational training to address labor market demands. However, challenges like resource disparities and implementation gaps persist but there are also aspect of the Curriculum that are perfectly working.
What’s Working?
- Learner-Centered Approach: The Namibian curriculum emphasizes a learner-centered approach, which encourages active participation and critical thinking. This aligns with global educational trends aimed at producing well-rounded, independent thinkers who are moulded to think for the future Namibia.
- Inclusion of Life Skills: The curriculum includes subjects like life skills, designed to equip learners with practical tools to handle societal challenges. Each school offers Life Skills as a subject from grade four through to grade 11. These skills are but not limited to Communication skills, Decision-making skills, Problem-solving skills, Critical thinking skills, Emotional intelligence, Stress and time management, Interpersonal relationship skills, Self-awareness and self-esteem building, Goal setting and planning, Financial literacy , Conflict resolution skills, Digital literacy, Leadership skills, Health and wellness education, Career planning and work readiness, Adaptability and resilience, Cultural and social awareness, Teamwork and collaboration, Assertiveness skills and Entrepreneurship skills.
- Focus on Vocational Training: Efforts to incorporate Technical, Vocational Education, and Training (TVET) are commendable as they address skills shortages and prepare learners for employment opportunities in various sectors. Subjects like Home Ecology, Elementary Agriculture, Agricultural Science, Design and Technology, and others, are technical and vocational subjects given to the learners to prepare them hands-on skills suitable for the labor market.
- Emphasis on ICT: The integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as well as Information and Communication (IC) demonstrates an attempt to modernize education and prepare learners for the digital age. Namibia has a National ICT Policy which generally aims to leverage Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a catalyst for socioeconomic development, enabling Namibia to become a knowledge-based society. It, in general context, focuses on: (1) enhancing access to ICT infrastructure and services, (2) promoting digital literacy and skills development, (3) driving innovation, research, and development in ICT (4) bridging the digital divide, especially between rural and urban areas, (5) supporting economic growth and competitiveness through ICT, (6) facilitating e-governance to improve public service delivery, (7) encouraging private sector investment and public-private partnerships in ICT, as well as (8) ensuring inclusive participation in the digital economy.
This policy aims to position ICT as a key enabler of national goals, including poverty reduction, education reform, and sustainable development. It spells out what each government institution should look like in terms of ICT infrastructure provision and ICT gadgets and tools usage by suggesting various levels or categories.
- Cultural Context: The curriculum respects and incorporates Namibian history and culture, fostering a sense of identity and patriotism among learners.
- Secularism: Namibia does not adopt an official religion and maintains a separation between government and religious institutions. In practice, this means:
Freedom of Religion: Citizens including learners in schools are free to practice any religion or none at all without government interference or favoring one religion over others.
Neutrality in Governance: The state does not promote or impose religious beliefs in public policies, public institutions or legal matters.
Non-Religious Public Institutions: Curcculum is designed in such a way that public institutions, such as schools and government offices, operate independently of religious doctrines, ensuring that state functions are secular unlike in the past when Bible Studies was compulsory to learners in government schools, which did not sit well with non-christians and non-believers.
This secular status incorporated in the constitution and curriculum helps promote equality, respect for diversity, and the protection of individual rights, regardless of religious beliefs, not only in general Namibia but, also in schools as public entities.
What’s Not Working?
Overloaded Content: Many subjects are overly theoretical and content-heavy, which overwhelms learners and limits their ability to develop practical skills. Teachers tend to work in order to finish the syllabus rather than training the learners to be hands-on. Quality has been compromised over quantity.
Overcrowded Classrooms: Overcrowded classrooms hinder effective teaching and learning, making it harder to implement the curriculum in a way that supports learner success and achievement. It also causes discipline issues, teacher burnout, reduce quality assessments as well as reducing individual attention, just to mention a few.
Mismatch with Job Market Needs: The curriculum is not fully aligned with the demands of the labor market. Many graduates struggle to find jobs because the education system does not adequately prepare them for entrepreneurship or specialized industries.
In Namibia, several qualifications are producing graduates who face challenges in securing employment due to a mismatch with labor market demands. These include:
General Humanities Degrees (e.g., Philosophy, Sociology, and History): While valuable for developing critical thinking and analytical skills, these qualifications often lack direct applicability to specific job markets, leading to fewer job opportunities in Namibia.
Arts and Visual Arts Degrees: Graduates from programs in arts, music, and theater often struggle to find jobs unless they pursue careers in niche industries or self-employment, which are limited in Namibia’s job market.
Social Sciences Degrees: Similar to humanities, degrees in fields like psychology, or political science may not always align with the needs of the local labor market, which tends to prioritize more technical or vocational skills.
General Management and Business Administration Degrees: While important, a broad management degree without specialization led lead to over-saturation in a competitive job market, particularly when specific industries or sectors require more technical expertise rather than general management or business administration.
Law Degrees (without specialization): While a law degree is valuable, many graduates struggle to find relevant positions without specializing in areas with higher demand, such as corporate law, environmental law, or labor law.
Education Degrees (without specialization or sufficient practical training): Graduates with general teaching qualifications may face challenges if there is an oversupply of teachers in certain subjects such as on Junior Primary phase currently. Teachers without specific areas of specialization, mostly trained by foreign institutions, face challenges in employability and promotability.
Tourism and Hospitality Degrees: While tourism is an important sector to Namibia, the mismatch arises when graduates are trained in general tourism management without the necessary practical experience, skills, or knowledge of local market dynamics. Institutions of high learning capitalized on the growing tourism sector but failed to study the dynamics of the sector to esblish specific needs and areas of expertise needed by this sector.
Media and Communications Degrees: There is a surplus of graduates in these fields, but the local job market for media professionals remains limited, particularly outside major cities, leading to high unemployment rates among graduates in this area.
The key issue is often a lack of alignment between the education system and the demands of the rapidly changing economy, particularly in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and vocational training, where skills are in higher demand in Namibia.
Insufficient Focus on STEM
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects are under-emphasized, despite their importance in driving innovation and economic growth. Lack of technical universities, apart from Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) as well University of Namibia (Engineering Campus at Ongwediva), is one major shortfall Namibia has to tackle as a country in order to be an innovative country. Vocational Training Centers (VTCs) need to do away with Office Administration courses and focus more on practical and hands-on areas.
Limited Resources
Many schools lack adequate resources, such as laboratories, practical rooms for practical subjects, libraries, and ICT resource rooms, making it difficult to fully implement the curriculum. Even though Information and Communication as a subject requires learners in primary education to use computers and also having ICT Policy directing schools to have ICT infrastructures, learners are taught theoretically and at times leave basic education to tertiary education without touching a computer, let alone a tablet. Subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and others, requires each school offering such a subject to have a laboratory for each and equipped with needed apparatuses, chemicals and consumables so that learners will be able to handle Paper 3 in National examination, which requires learners to be hands-on.
Examination-Oriented System
The heavy reliance on standardized testing discourages creativity and critical thinking, focusing more on rote learning than skill acquisition.
Rural-Urban Divide
Rural schools face greater challenges in implementing the curriculum due to limited access to infrastructure, teaching materials, and qualified teachers in areas of ICT as there are no ICT devices and gadgets.
Shifting from Traditional Curriculum to Modern-Based Curriculum
Competency-Based Curriculum: An alternative to the examination-oriented curriculum is a competency-based education (CBE) system. In this approach, the focus shifts from merely testing learners’ knowledge through exams to assessing their ability to demonstrate specific skills, competencies, and learning outcomes. Shift to a competency-based approach is focusing on practical skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving. This would better prepare learners for real-world challenges and job opportunities.based on what they know and capable of.
STEM-Driven Curriculum: Introduce stronger emphasis on STEM subjects to prepare learners for careers in science, technology, and engineering, which are crucial for national development.
Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy: Equip learners with entrepreneurial skills and financial literacy to encourage self-employment and innovation, reducing dependence on formal employment. Government is responsible for job creation but there is a tendency and line of thinking that government must employ everyone. The duty of government is to equip it’s citizens and create an environment where job opportunities are available and individuals can use these opportunities to get employment either (a) in government, (b) private sector or (c) self-employment. So, there is a need for curriculum to have a serious focus and emphasis on entrepreneurship and financial education for individuals to be able to run finances of their own and the entities they find themselves working in.
Localized and Flexible Curriculum: Tailor the curriculum to national needs, allowing schools to focus on skills and industries relevant to their local economies, such as agriculture, tourism, and mining. Imported curriculums are not only a total damage to the country’s economic development but also a total and wrong investment.
Increased Vocational Training: Expand TVET programs to cater to more learners, ensuring they acquire specialized skills for the trades and manufacturing sectors. Currently, we have numerous VTCs, almost in each region, but there is a need to establish more VTCs in each region and have more trades in these VTCs. Do away with course that are not hands-on from VTCs and let the VTC be hands-on. The public needs to be educated on the importance of VTCs. Currently, many students who are absorbed by VTCs tend to be the garbages who failed to obtain minimum requirements for the university and, students always shy to tell others that they are furthering their studies with a VTC. So, truth must be told that a country can’t have infrastructures by Administrative Officers and those who sit in air-conditioned rooms putting on ties and suits. There is a need to have one putting on protective boots, overalls, groves and safety helmets and get muddy in order to develop a country in terms of physical development.
Integrated Digital Education: Make ICT and digital literacy compulsory, ensuring all learners are equipped for the fourth industrial revolution. English and mathematics are compulsory subjects but our curriculum must also make provision to make ICT compulsory because the world is becoming more digital than we can imagine. There is a need for our curriculum to make sure that every learner and student entering the system is digitalised.
Environmental and Climate Education: Incorporate environmental studies and sustainability to address Namibia’s vulnerability to climate change and equip learners with the knowledge to protect natural resources. Namibia is the first county in the world to legalize and put into it country’s constitution the protection of the environment but yet we failed as a country to make sure that environmental studies and protection is a subject in the curriculum.
Bilingual Proficiency: Strengthen both English and indigenous languages to preserve cultural heritage while ensuring global competitiveness. Every mother tongue is very crucial and builds a strong foundation for a learner to learn another language. It is therefore important that a child must be able to speak their mother tongue before they learn any other languages. There is no pride in knowing Afrikaans better than the language you grow up speaking at Okadidiya village.
Implementation Recommendations
Teacher Training: Invest in continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers to equip them with modern teaching methods and tools. A teacher withought knowledge in teaching methods and teaching and learning tools is an illitrate teacher in the 21 century.
Resource Allocation: Ensure equitable distribution of resources to bridge the rural-urban divide.
Stakeholder Engagement: Collaborate with industry leaders, educational experts, and community stakeholders to design a relevant and inclusive curriculum.
Periodic Review: Establish a regular review system to adapt the curriculum to changing economic, social, and technological needs. There is a need to establish a local-based review rather than Cambridge-based review.
By adopting a practical, inclusive, and forward-looking curriculum, Namibia can develop a skilled workforce capable of driving prosperity across various sectors.
Silas Mwaudasheni Nande
Silas Mwaudasheni Nande is a teacher by profession who has been a teacher in the Ministry of Education since 2001, as a teacher, Head of Department and currently a School Principal in the same Ministry. He holds a Basic Education Teacher Diploma (Ongwediva College of Education), Advanced Diploma in Educational Management and Leadership (University of Namibia), Honors Degree in Educational Management, Leadership and Policy Studies (International University of Management) and Masters Degree in Curriculum Studies (Great Zimbabwe University). Views expressed here are his own opinion but neither for the Ministry, Directorate of Education, Arts and Culture nor for the school he serves as a principal.
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About the Author
It is a very good articulation brother. It is worthy reading and it can greatly contribute to curriculum studies of today.