Education dominates JNC resolutions

WINDHOEK, 04 SEP  – The second session of the Junior National Council has concluded, resulting in nine resolutions from the 40 junior councillors representing Namibia’s 14 regions in the two-day event.
This is revealed in a dossier that was shared with Nampa by National Council spokesperson Raphael Hangula on Monday.
Of the nine resolutions, six are targeted at improving education in the country through the development of specialised skills amongst others.
“[The Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Innovation] to actively engage the national tertiary institutions to streamline the faculties with Vision 2030, Harambee Prosperity Plan and national development plans to ensure that skills they teach and build are actually the skills required by the job market,” reads one of the resolutions.
Furthermore, the junior councillors want the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture to make the conducting of an aptitude test compulsory at Grade 7 and 9 levels. This is in a bid to ensure focus learning and specialisation skills development.
An aptitude test is a tailor-made exercise designed to determine a person’s ability in a particular skill or field of knowledge.
In addition, they proposed that Grade 11 and 12 learners be allowed to have a seventh subject, as opposed to the current six. This, however, will to depend on the willingness and capability of the given learner to choose to have an official additional subject.
At present, the Grade 11 and 12 learners are allowed to have more than six subjects, but for the extra subjects, no class teacher is dedicated to attend to those learners. Instead, learners are expected to do these subjects during their free time while teachers attend to them in their free time.
Also on the education front, the junior leaders resolved that life skills curricula makes provision to educate learners about social media platforms, their pros and cons.
They also proposed that the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology come up with and implement an effective social media policy.
“There is a need for the education ministry to build the capacity of the Life Skills teachers and also to make it compulsory for the teachers to attend career fairs,” the junior councillors said, before noting that schools ought to facilitate education tours to extractive industry establishments to trigger interest of youth in this lucrative sector.
Furthermore, the JNC made a plea to those in leadership positions to consider youth input during the formulation of national policies and their implementation.
“While acknowledging the existence of the neighbourhood watch initiatives, there is still a need for broader awareness on the importance of establishment of the neighbourhood watches and its benefits, especially within the poorer communities,” another resolution reads.
The JNC concluded on Friday.
It discussed topical issues such as human trafficking and cyber-crime, youth participation in the national budgeting process and their involvement in the extractive industry in a bid to enhance their economic and social development. – NAMPA