Academy for Educational Development

In the past 14 years Namibia’s education system has undergone a transformation so sweeping that it could be described as extraordinary.

Since gaining independence from South Africa in 1990, this young

Students in Namibia play a game to learn math.

nation in Southwestern Africa has gone from an apartheid educational model that served only the privileged few—and even those students were racially segregated—to a structure that welcomes all children into integrated classrooms.

“The government has completely reformed the system,” said Donna Kay LeCzel, a senior education advisor with the AED Global Education Center. Since January, 2000, LeCzel has worked alongside the Namibian government through the Namibia Basic Education Support, or BES, II project.

 

When AED started working in Namibia, the project was located in 14 schools. Currently, BES II’s school improvement program is working in more than 900 schools, which represents about 75 percent of the primary schools in six regions of the country’s 13 regions.

 

The goal of the project is to improve the professional development of the teaching corps, create a learning model that centers around the student, implement the use of continuous assessments, and involve parents and community members in school improvement plans and activities.

 

Under the apartheid education system, those fortunate few Namibian students who had access to school were taught through traditional methods. Generally, the class sat quietly and listened to their teacher lecture at a chalkboard. When the teacher asked a question, the entire class would answer as a whole.

 

There was virtually no individual instruction, according to LeCzel. “The teachers didn’t know what each child could do,” she said.

A Namibian teacher uses small-group instruction.

Because of the education reform and the work AED is doing through BES II, teachers now encourage individual growth through small-group work. The change for the teachers has been dramatic, said LeCzel.

“Imagine these teachers who, under the apartheid system, learned to teach students by having them memorize a certain number of facts,” she said. “Then the teachers had to go through a reform that entirely changed the way they teach.”

 

Still, she said, the teachers in Namibia have been very receptive to the changes. In addition to splitting the students into small groups, the teachers are using hands-on materials and “learning games” in their classrooms. The games teach everything from math facts to the alphabet by having the students use higher-order thinking skills to solve problems and manipulate materials.

 

For example, in one game the teacher writes letters on a set of cards, then draws cards out  of a hat until there are enough for students to form words.

 

In addition to the hands-on activities the teachers are learning to use, they are now giving their students ongoing assessments to evaluate their performance. Previously, tests were given once a year. They were used as “the gatekeeper from one grade to the next,” said LeCzel.

 

Other, more developed countries have struggled to improve professional development, implement ongoing learner-performance assessments, and move away from stressing memorization. But Namibia has been able to make vast improvements in just the few short years since it gained independence. “The change has been radical,” said LeCzel.

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For more information on BES II, please contact Donna Kay LeCzel.