Education Essay- Namibia and Finland

The Best Education System compared to Namibia’s Education System

Introduction: Educational Summer Project Inspired Furthering my Knowledge

 In the summer of 2018, I led a community-based service initiative that enhanced my passion for positive change in my home country, Namibia. This was made possible by the Hubert scholarship which enabled me to revamp a school library, purchase children’s books and dedicate three months to working with children in primary school between the ages of six and thirteen. English is the official language in Namibia, therefore, the education system is structured around the language. Despite children being expected to be taught in English and to take national examinations in English in grade 10 and 12, English remains a challenge for many children. It was for this reason that I decided to pursue a project focused on making reading English books enjoyable. To create a thriving education system it requires not only understanding but also enjoying the language one is being taught in.

 

Currently, Namibia is attempting to incorporate the learning of traditional languages in respective communities. Children are taught up until grade 3 in a traditional language in public schools until they step into grade 4 and all their lessons are conducted in English  (Likando and Wolhuter 75). The logic behind this is that children struggle to adjust to English when they first start school and thus a traditional language is a way to gently ease them into the rigours of academic life. Although the thinking behind this is reasonable, in practice it is placing children from communities where these traditional languages are spoken at a disadvantage to children in private schools who have lessons in English right from the start of their education. There is also the faulty thinking that young children would not be able to grasp English at a school since they only speak their traditional language at home. This is far from what I experienced in my time at the school. I spent over a month for about 3 times a week reading to children aged 5 to 7 from English books. Not only did they understand what they were being read despite a teacher’s instance that would not be able to but they also picked up vocabulary in this very short period of time. When reading was presented to them in an exciting and engaging manner children were more than eager to listen quietly despite having had a long day of school and having the option to play outside. It is my hope that the Namibian Ministry of Education will encourage reading lessons from a young age and stress the importance of reading material that appeals to the children.

 

Recently, there have been new developments with the Ministry of Education enacting mandatory reading lessons for grades 4 till 7, with hopes of improving language competency. This is a step in the right direction and if done well could have positive results for many children who do not speak English as their first language. Many of the children I spoke to only had access to books when at school, so little to no reading was happening at home. The reading lessons, however, that were added to the curriculum were not clearly explained to schools by the Ministry of Education and there was confusion as to how to conduct these lessons. In the classes, I visited some used the reading lesson as an additional English lesson while in others they entire class read aloud. The classes were not particularly engaging and not everyone was reading along where they read aloud. Instead of creating a space for children to discover numerous stories and read outside of the curriculum, they were conducting these lessons like they would teach any other subject.  Most public schools have great book shortages even for prescribed textbooks, so it comes as no surprise that children’s fiction books are even rarer to find at public schools. Having a school library in Namibia is a privilege due to limited classroom space and librarians no longer being paid for by government funds. The library I worked in had no full-time librarian but instead, there was a math teacher who held the position in addition to her job at the school. Without a librarian who could constantly be there, books were likely to go missing, the library would become disorganized and children would have a hard time navigating the space.

 

The need for improvement in Namibia’s education system is acknowledged by the Ministry of Education and Government of Namibia as seen in a report from a parliamentary address in 2016. A higher level and quality of education is one of the most important conditions for economic development according to policymakers in the international community ( Lee 1). My project allowed me to start considering some of the irregularities in the Namibian education system and start considering solutions. Exploring solutions would come from researching education systems that work in favour of children. One such education system is the Finnish, which is considered the best education system (cite). In an effort to gain greater insight into Namibia’s education and how to continue positively impacting change in the education system

 

Finnish education compared to the Namibian education system

 

Finland is recognized as holding one of the best education systems. International testing in 2009, showed the results of Finnish children ranking high in math, science and literacy skills. They demonstrated not only their ability to perform well but to also truly understand the content they learned and use problem-solving skills during tests (Morgan 453).  The Finnish education was not always the best system globally, in 1960 actually, it lagged behind neighbouring Scandinavian countries and had an education level similar to that of Peru( Sahlberg 1). The government implemented a new education system called peruskonda with hopes of ending previous problems in the old education system. Finnish education system today has an optional year of pre-school at age six, followed compulsory basic education which is made up of 6 years of primary school and 3 years of lower secondary school. Namibia also has a compulsory education up until the age of 16 with 1 year of pre-school, 7 years of primary school and 3 years of secondary school( Likando and Wolhuter 80 ). According to Education in a Nutshell, teachers have “pedagogical autonomy”, which means that they can decide on how their lessons are conducted,   (12)

 

 

Education in Finland works so well because of very educated teachers who mostly hold a Masters degree and enjoy a great deal of autonomy when it comes to conducting their lessons. In Namibia however, most teachers are regarded as qualified after receiving a 4-year long degree in teaching, however, because of a lack of controls by the government under-qualified individuals do get employed, especially in rural areas. According to an address in May 2016 by the Parliament of Namibia, there is a great need to improve the quality of teachers and increase their motivation (11-12). In Namibia, teachers are not regarded as highly as doctors or engineers, in Finland however despite teachers earning very close to the national average teaching is seen as a highly prestigious position. This mindset might attribute to the low numbers of enrollment in tertiary education in Namibia to study education and unmotivated teachers due to not only low salaries but also how teaching as a profession is regarded in Namibia. English is not the first language of most teachers, with considerable numbers of them also having been educated in Afrikaans during apartheid. ( Likando and Wolhuter 276) It is understandable that students struggle to become fluent in English when the teachers who make up the education sector do not have strong academic backgrounds in the English language.

 

Traditional teaching and learning continues to be common in Namibia, due to the remnants of the colonial educational system. In this traditional education, model children were not given the space to ask questions and contribute to their learning experience. It also relies heavily on memorization and gives little to no room for experiential learning or creative thinking ( Likando and Wolhuter 80-81 ). The National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) is a directorate under the Ministry of Education that develops the curriculum in Namibia ( Likando and Wolhuter 78 ). Teachers in Namibia unlike in Finland are not permitted to develop their own curriculum.

 

Another reason that Finnish education is the best is due to early intervention, which means that children with learning difficulties and special needs are identified early on. Not only is early intervention vital but there is an emphasis in Finland to making special needs programs more widely accessible and less of a taboo. Efforts to make special needs programs widely available in public education has proven to lessen the rate of children repeating grades drastically. From the start of a child’s education up until 16 years of age, only 2% of the population repeats a grade. Repetition of primary and even high school is very common in Namibia. This evidently serves in decreasing the morale of students and is therefore reasonably avoided in the Finish education system.

 

Currently, Namibia spends 17% of its education budget on actual education activities while 83% of it is allocated to paying the salaries of teachers as of 2010 (Likando and Wolhuter 76). This means that very little of the budget goes to enhancing education for the benefit students beyond employing teachers. Overcrowded classrooms along with limited textbooks and poor quality of stationery supplies are all issues that serve as an impediment to improving education in Namibia. With not enough funds being channelled into addressing these problem areas and more it comes as no surprise that Namibia is facing considerable education challenges (Likando and Wolhuter 87).

 

Overall, there is a strong need to emphasise equality in Finland and Namibia would do well in focusing on this value as well. Namibia has a very divided education system due to public and private institutions which perpetuate the inequality faced on a larger scale across Namibia. Private education is not only prefered but the gap in the education quality and resources available is alarming stark when compared to public institutions. Students who attend private schools are more likely to pursue tertiary education in South Africa or overseas, while students who have been publically educated generally attend national institutes if they perform well enough to be admitted but even that is rare. Admission to universities in Namibia is not as competitive as outside programs due to high failure rates in final examinations across the county. Approximately 50% of students in their final year of secondary school fail. This forces those who can afford it to repeat the subjects they did not pass at a fee that is often much higher than what they paid at their secondary school. Namibia is failing to create equality for all in its education system and this needs to be addressed if the country is to remain democratic and continue to grow economically in a way that will benefit all Namibian people.

 

Conclusion: The Finnish Education Model is not the perfect Model for Namibia 

 

When comparing the education systems of Namibia with that of a developed country like Finland it seems logical to try and extrapolate what is working so well in the latter. The failure to analyze and consider the nuances of the respective countries is an easy trap to fall into, however. Education systems like democracy were derived from the Western world and encouraged in African countries after independence. The hopes were that Africa would catch up with the West and be fully integrated into the capitalist economy and consumer society. Unfortunately, however, this has not yielded the results it set out to make a reality. The complexities surrounding a functioning democratic system in African countries is but a larger version of what extrapolating European versions of education would look like.

 

Namibia like other African countries still suffers from the remnants of colonial systems that did not seek to educate a child beyond what was necessary. It merely sought to create subservient and partially educated adults who lack creativity and only function within faulty colonial systems. The Finnish education although not a colonial education system as it seeks to educate Finnish people to be excellent working members of their society, is still unable to provide a complete and ideal answer to what would work for Namibian people. Namibia unlike Finland with its 2 main languages, Finish and Swedish, is challenged by approximately 26 languages and dialects in a population of under 3 million. Much of the population is vastly dispersed across the country known as the second most sparsely populated place on earth, making attaining education difficult for those in rural communities. Demographic differences are not the only factors to be considered when thinking of ways to adapt to the Finnish education system to that of Namibia. Issues like funding education programs and practices remain problematic even within the current situation. Misallocation of funds and resources along with corruption make implementing effective education programs more convoluted than they should be. The vast majority of children, 97%, attending school come from homes where English is not their first language (Kriger, Robert & Ethel, 66-67). Therefore children face the challenged of not having a foundation or adequate support from home due to parents primarily communicating to them in a language other than English. In Finland, preschool education is not mandatory indicating that there is generally strong family support and environments that encourage learning even before children start primary school. Namibia has to deal with the complexity of preserving traditional languages by integrating them into the education system while still providing strong competency in English. It needs to find ways to support teachers who require more training to be better communicators and more knowledgeable on the content they are teaching.

 

Ultimately, developing efficient education systems in Finland did not happen overnight but rather took decades before the country saw any results. Namibia has to prioritize education now so that in the years to come the results will be evident. Results starting with greater English competency, followed by higher pass rates in examinations, more students having the option to attend a tertiary education and ultimately more jobs being created. Jobs that will allow for creativity and enterprise which will lead to a more developed and stable and thriving Namibia.

 

Bibliography:

 

  • M. Saarela, T. Kärkkäinen. 2017. Knowledge Discovery from the Programme for International Student Assessment. Learning Analytics: Fundaments, Applications, and Trends, pages 229-267. Web. 29 October 2018
  • G. Likando, C.C Wolhuter, K. Mutengu, J Mushaanja, Comparative Education: An Introduction, Keurkopie Uitgewers 2011. Print.
  • Lee, J. (2008). Essays on the determinants and effects of public education expenditure in developing countries (Order No. 3351547). Available from Education Database. (304684080). Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/304684080?accountid=8381.
  • “Finnish Education in a Nutshell.” Education in Finland, 2017, www.oph.fi/download/146428_Finnish_Education_in_a_Nutshell.pdf. Web. 26 October 2018
  • Sahlberg, Pasi. “The Secret to Finlands Success: Educating Teachers .” Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education ~ Research Brief, Scope, 10 Sept. 2010, file:///C:/Users/Lenovo/Downloads/Documents/Secret to Finland’s Success – Education Teachers.pdf. Web.
  • Parliament of Namibia (2016). Educational Transformation In Namibia. Windhoek Namibia: Parliament of Namibia www.parliament.na/phocadownload/media/2016/speech_at_commonwealth_16.pdf. Web. 12 November 2018
  • “Teacher Education.” Finnish National Agency for Education – Education System, www.oph.fi/english/education_system/teacher_education. Web. 10 November 2018
  • “Namibia.” UNICEF, 2017, www.unicef.org/namibia/education.html. Web. 3 November 2018
  • Hani Morgan (2014) Review of Research: The Education System in Finland: A Success Story Other Countries Can Emulate, Childhood Education, 90:6, 453-457, DOI: 10.1080/00094056.2014.983013
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  • Kriger, Robert & Ethel (1996). Afrikaans Literature: Recollection, Redefinition, Restitution. Rodopi Bv Editions. pp. 66–67. ISBN 9042000511.

Author: Hannah Brendell

Hannah Brendell is a UWC graduate from Windhoek, Namibia. She is currently pursing a major in International Relations and Economic Development at Agnes Scott College, in Atlanta Georgia. She aspires to be a leader of positive change in her home country and across the African continent.

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