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Regional Directorates of Education

Oshana Region

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The Oshana Region was guided by the ministerial broad goals of access, equity, quality, life-long learning and democracy in its efforts to maximize the overall performance of all schools. The region set to achieve the following objectives during the year under review:

· To ensure that all learners with special needs receive quality education that meets their requirements;

· To minimize the spread of HIV/AIDS and address the demographic and financial impact it has on the education sector;

· To ensure that all learners completing Grades 4, 7, 10 and 12 respectively have achieved basic competencies in the required subjects of the curriculum;

· To ensure that all educational programmes are fully implemented and that learners in literacy programmes progress between stages, through improved monitoring of educational standards;

· To ensure that adequate, appropriate and relevant information resources are available to learners throughout the region and that all unit members are performing at optimum levels;

· To ensure that all school age going learners have access to education;

· To render efficient and effective services through effective use of human resources and proper accountable financial administration.

In order to ensure that all learners with special needs receive quality education, thirty-one (31) Counselling Support Group members from twenty (20) schools were trained in basic counselling skills. Also, an annual career fair was held in which sixty-two (62) schools participated and seven hundred and twenty-four (724) learners from grade 9,10 and 12 visited the fair.

To minimize the spread of HIV/AIDS and address the demographic and financial impact it has on the education sector, an All Star Awards Banquet for 12 HIV contact teachers and their school principals was held. The HIV & AIDS Awareness Week as well as World AIDS Day were commemorated at the Regional Office with several games and video displays in June and 1st December respectively.

In order to ensure that all learners completing grades 4, 7, 10 and 12 respectively have achieved basic competencies in the required subjects of curriculum, the following activities were held:

· 397 new teachers, subject facilitators and old teachers of History, Social Studies, Physical Science, Pre-vocational, Mathematics, and African Languages were acquainted with the subject policy, management, knowledge and assessment.

· 397 teachers were trained on how to interpret the subject syllabi, set examination papers, plan and how to deliver quality lessons that entail assessment. They were also trained how to produce teaching and learning materials and how to implement the subject policies.

· 143 Heads of Departments received training in alternative opportunities to discipline, setting targets for learners’ performance, examining results analysis and year planning.

To ensure that teaching and learning takes place in a conducive and supportive environment, a panel consisting of Inspectors of Education, Advisory Teachers and Education Officers from the regional office visited 14 schools between April 2005 and March 2006. They assessed lesson plans, participation of learners in lessons, quality assessment tasks and the implementation of assessment criteria. In addition, 145 subject teachers were supported through class observations, subject meetings and lesson demonstration given by Advisory Teachers. Cluster coaching sessions were held for History, Geography and African Languages to reinforce confidence in subject management and subject content. Although Advisory Teachers are keen to support teachers in addressing various problems, the lack of transport hinders their effort to reach their goals.

The staffing norms were successfully implemented and teachers from overstaffed schools were transferred to understaffed schools. School/hostel inspections were carried out to promote good performance through the guidance of Inspectors of Education, Advisory teachers and other senior officials.

In order to ensure that learners in literacy programmes make progress between stages, community meetings were held in different constituencies within the Region from December 2005 to February 2006 to screen literacy learners. This strategy ensures that learners are properly placed according to the level of their literacy ability.

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To ensure that adequate, appropriate and relevant information resources are available to learners throughout the region, library collections in schools and community libraries have increased. The availability of prescribed reading materials in libraries and provision of Internet services resulted in a remarkable increase in membership. An awareness campaign was launched to inform communities about library services including the use of information and cultures through print media, radio broadcasting and an exhibition of library materials at Ongwediva Annual Trade Fair. Events such as the library Month, Literacy Week and Readathon Week were also celebrated. Ten (10) clusters were visited and ‘Study Tips’ seminars held for 1378 Grade 10 learners, while each received a ‘Study Tip’ manual. A total of 1579 study tip manuals were distributed to 5 Senior Secondary Schools.

In order to increase access to education, 99 literacy centres were established. In addition, three schools, namely Erundu Combined School, Iihenda Junior Secondary School, and Nangolo Junior Secondary Schools were allowed to offer Grade 11 for the first time to accommodate part of the 2493 Grade 11 learners who were not admitted. A feasibility study for Ondangwa Junior Secondary School has also been completed. Various classrooms, computer laboratories, and school halls were constructed. The total number of constructions for the 2005/2006 fiscal year include fourteen (14) classrooms; two (2) computer laboratories; one (1) library; two (2) school halls; and one (1) ten seat pit latrine. A renovation programme resulted in the upgrade of twenty-six (26) classrooms, one (1) kitchen and its dinning hall and one (1) science laboratory.

General Services conducted training workshops to improve the quality of services and accountability. To this end, principals of three school with new Grade 10 classes such as Omukandu, Ontinda and Ondjondjo combined Schools were trained on how to receive examination fees and deposit them to the nearest Sub-Receiver of Ministerial Revenue. Three accountants were also trained on the implementation of the Integrated Financial Management System. The Salaries and Allowances files were separated according to the pay points between the two regions (Omusati and Oshana). Moreover, the monthly financial analysis report that compares actual monthly expenditures to a monthly budget was mechanized in order to improve accuracy and efficiency. The Personnel Sub-Division has completed the capturing of the data and is being maintained through regular updating. The data is linked to finance and planning sections, and is sent to schools twice a year for verification purposes. The Personnel Sub-Division handled 58 permanent appointments, 23 temporary appointments, 29 staff transfers, 12 promotions, 112 misconduct cases, 13 resignations and 16 deaths.

· Despite efforts to build capacity of RACE, the fact remains that RACE members have full time positions that require their attention and therefore cannot devote sufficient time to RACE activities. The region experiences a shortage of adult teaching materials due to the lack of funds.

· Libraries and Information Services experience book shortage because of lost books. It was also discovered during panel visits that some schools experienced a shortage of textbooks whereas others had enough.

· Due to lack of transport, it is difficult for Advisory Teachers to carry out effective visits and proper follow-ups. Budget constraints on the transport vote was the main obstacle in carrying out inspection at Sub-Receivers of Revenue in the region

· Late government tenders delayed school renovations and the construction of new classrooms, laboratories, libraries, and latrines.

· The shortage of staff due to decentralisation hinders the effective operation of General Services at the regional level;

· Lack of funds, to create new posts, especially for H.O. D’s and Secretaries hampers schools from having a full complement of staff as dictated by the staffing norms. Consequently, the region is not able to recruit and appoint teachers for subjects such as Oshikwanyama, Physical Science and mathematics, Metal Work and Technical Drawing for Grade 11-12. Heads of Department teach too many lessons so that they cannot perform their duties effectively

· The Adult Education Section needs to aggressively mobilize communities to understand the importance of adult education, while the Library Service needs to encourage maximum use of libraries and to revise community library opening hours to enable workers to use the library on weekends, during lunch and after hours. Enough funds should be provided to the Lifelong Learning division to provide enough learning materials to adult learners, and the Namibia Library and Information Service should set up a policy that could guide library staff to recover lost library books.

· Sufficient funds should be provided for the region to recruit much need teachers for sciences, prevocational subjects and H.O.D’s.

· The Ministry should provide a uniform learner: textbook ratio so that books can be distributed equitably to all the learners in the region. The Ministry should also speed up the implementation of Education Development Fund policy so that additional funds could be secured to assist schools in buying extra stationary and textbooks

· There is a need for proper coordination of development and renovation projects in order to speed up the implementation of planned projects.

· Lack of transport hinders proper delivery of services to schools. Therefore, the Ministry should make sure that transport is provided so that all Advisory Teachers and Inspectors of Education can support teachers in schools. The transport budget should be increased to enable the region to visit Sub-Receivers of Revenue and offer support to principals and cashiers to improve the process of receiving and depositing of ministerial revenue.

· Tenders for construction and renovation projects of schools should be decentralised to the Regional Council Tender board as the Department of Works and Director of Education are members of the Regional Tender board. This will speed up the appointment of contractors within a short time and reduce delays to projects.

· The decentralisation process should be fully implemented and a full complement of staff in place in order to avoid the work to be carried out by a skeleton staff.

· The HIV and AIDS Management Unit (HAMU) should speed up the appointment of a full-time HIV &AIDS Coordinator at Oshana Region, before the contract of the current RACE Coordinator expires.

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