Illiterate high school pupils

WINDHOEKSELMA IKELAThere are many Grade 8 learners at the Khomastura High School in Windhoek who cannot read and write, a teacher revealed yesterday when the minister of education, Dr David Namwandi, paid a surprise visit to the school. This problem is experienced in other grades too, and in some cases it is due to automatic promotion from lower grades, teachers indicated.&ldquo;I don't know how to teach them how to read because I am not qualified in that,&rdquo; a teacher told the minister.&ldquo;We have a syllabus that we need to cover throughout the year, but learners do not know how to read and I do not know how to teach them [that]. That is our problem here, that's why the learners are not performing,&rdquo; said the teacher, with other staff agreeing.The teacher said the school has foreign pupils, mainly from Angola, who cannot speak or understand English. &ldquo;How am I supposed to help them,&rdquo; she asked.She also said that the school enrols pupils whom other schools do not want and that the parents are not involved in their children's education.The teacher said the learners do not want to stay behind for afternoon classes because they have to walk a long distance to get home.Another teacher said that pupils who fail Grade 8 are &ldquo;pushed&rdquo; to Grade 10. &ldquo;In Grade 10 they get straight U's. We inherit these learners from primary school and once they fail Grade 8, they don't do their exercises or write tests because they know they are transfer cases,&rdquo; said the teacher.Namwandi said the important thing is to get parents on board. He said the school should organise a meeting for parents, teachers, the minister, permanent secretary and regional education director.He said the school's performance was not good last year and it should work out mechanisms to improve. He pointed out that there are schools in villages that do not have electricity or textbooks but are outperforming schools in the city.&ldquo;Your school is not doing well in this region. Please help us push it up. I want the region to be number one,&rdquo; he told the staff.Teachers quipped that children in the villages are not exposed to &ldquo;Eveline Street life&rdquo; like those in Windhoek. Eveline Street is a notorious street in Katutura that is lined with shebeens.Before the minister met with the staff he went to the classrooms where he spoke to the children and asked about the problems they are experiencing at school. A Grade nine class said they do not have textbooks for geography, entrepreneurship, physical science and mathematics. They also reported that they do not have a German language teacher.Teachers said pupils are given textbooks but they do not bring them to school with the excuse that they are too heavy to carry.School principal John Adams said they need a German language teacher and a relief teacher for English.The minister also stopped over at Augustineum Secondary School following an SMS published in a local newspaper, stating that Grade nine learners have not had teachers for mathematics, history and life science since the beginning of this semester.School principal Innocent Mweti told the minister that the history and mathematics teachers left last month but a new maths teacher started on Monday and a life science teacher would start next week.

Illiterate high school pupils

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-25

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Illiterate high school pupils

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-25

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