It’s Just Because Of That Phone!

“…420 pupils scored a zero in mathematics paper 2. For example, we found that some pupils failed even to calculate 10% of a given amount.”

 

These were the distressing words of the Minister of Education, Arts and Culture, Anna Nghipondoka, as captured in ‘The Namibian’ released on the 30^th of December 2022. These comments were reserved for the 2022 NSSCO and NSSCAS Grade 11 examinations, however Hon. Nghipondoka would not be too far off if she were to generalise since only 24% of examinees qualified for tertiary education.

 

As someone who is still recovering from the parasitic nightmare that was attending high school during the pandemic (yes, I will make sure to mention it whenever I can and wear it proudly as a badge of honour), the effects of COVID-19 cannot be ignored when tending to the wounded secondary education sector. Numerous government schools were put on ice for several weeks and months, leaving pupils to self-teach with materials sent via online chat forums and government websites.

 

This was not only stressful for students…

 

Similar to Hachikoo, the gentlest canine terrorist to ever grace Ehenye, the COVID-19 Pandemic was this indistinguishable creature that wrecked unsolicited havoc due to our lack of understanding of it. The only difference is that Hachikoo was rescued by a knight in shining scrubs, while the big blow to the academic sector could not be nursed back to full health, at least not in the near future.

 

It’s times like these when a lot of blame seems to be passed around. “You just like to be lazy? You are an incompetent educator? You know what Letu, if the exam was on Youtube you would have passed with flying colours, but now you failed all because of that phone!”

Ok… maybe I got a bit side-tracked on that last point. Alas, looking for solutions will be the remedy to these issues, not complaining. I truly believe the pandemic was a stress-inducing period that we don’t even fully understand yet. I think giving teachers, parents, learners and all stakeholders some grace and compassion for just enduring the last few years of demonic suffering should be the bare minimum.

 

Of course, things could always be better. It can be easy to compare ourselves to other countries that handled the viral battering more gracefully, however we often ignore the fact that our pre-existing setbacks make it impossible to fairly pass judgement. Our country already had issues with mass failure during the previous eras of the NSSCO and NSSCH examinations, so let us not see the added failure of the Advanced Subsidiary level as a singular issue, but rather as an accumulation of errors that were grossly exposed by a health catastrophe. 

You will always be the harshest critic when the landscaping is done in your own backyard so some nation-wide understanding, acknowledgement of fault and overall compassion can go a long way towards healing the faulty education system.