Schools to continue with old textbooks despite renamings

WINDHOEKSELMA IKELA

The Ministry of Education will continue using old school textbooks and will simply instruct teachers to correctly teach learners the new information relating to the naming and renaming of some regions and constituencies by President Hifikepunye Pohamba last month.
Among the new information to be taught by teachers is that Caprivi is now called the Zambezi Region, while Karas has been renamed to //Karas Region. Pohamba also announced that the Kavango Region has been split into two regions, namely the Kavango East and Kavango West, which bring the total number of regions in the country to 14.
The Lüderitz Constituency is now known as! Nami? Nüs, while Schuckmannsburg will now be called Luhonono.
"To rewrite a book is a process and it takes much longer. We can do the change in the syllabus because it is easy to do. Teachers will now refer to the new names, until textbooks are available that carry these new names," said Alfred Ilukena, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education.
He explained that the ministry is not responsible for writing textbooks, as this was done by a private contractor.
"We are saying some changes can be instituted as part of the syllabus, because it is not that critical that the whole textbook changes. You just do it in the class," he said
In the case of Kavango being split in two, he said teaching would at some stage require a cartographer to produce a map for Kavango East and Kavango West.
Asked if the changes will impact the learners during examinations, Ilukena said: "No, it will be unfair (to the learners) because the examinations have already been set two years ago and the marking scheme has Kavango and Caprivi (as part of the answers)," he said.
Ilukena said next year's examination papers will be easier to change, as they can go into the database and adjust the questions accordingly. However, this depends on whether the syllabus will change or not.