EQUITY AND QUALITY AS EDUCATIONAL IMPERATIVES

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Strategies used in attaining MDGs

Since the World Declaration of Education for All in 1990, and the Millennium Development Goals in 2000, developing countries, especially Sub-Saharan African countries, have developed a range of education policy options and strategies in an effort to expand universal access, address equity and quality of education to all primary school age children by 2015. The majority of African countries, including Namibia, have shown their commitment through policy options, strategies and intervention education programmes, like the mobile school programme and boarding schools, to ensure that all primary school age children enrol and complete their primary education cycle.
To support the notion of universal access to primary education as a crucial condition for socio-economic development of a country, many developing countries have made primary education free and compulsory. For example, since the World Declaration of EFA (1990) and the MDGs (2000), a number of African countries (i.e. Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda) have abolished school fees and this resulted in higher primary enrolment ratios. The main objective was to achieve 100% UPE by 2015. In a number of African countries like Senegal and Gambia for example, the primary school age children NER rose respectively from 48% and 57% in 1995 to 75% and 73% in 2009. A similar trend was experienced in Tanzania where enrolment rates doubled from 48% in 1995 to 98% in 2009. In Namibia, the government developed various strategies to show her commitment towards the attainment of Millennium Development Goal 2 (universal primary education), by ensuring that all primary school age children including nomads and pastoralist choldren enrol and complete their basic primary education. The Namibian government has shown this commitment through policy options such as 2000 Policy Options for Educational Marginalised Children, or directives and interventions, like free compulsory primary education, and the 1990 Constitution of Namibia. The strategies and interventions include the establishment of mobile school programme, exemption of children from marginalized communities (including Himba and Zemba) from School Development Fund, promotion of measures to improve quality in education and the introduction of nutrition and school feeding programme. These measures had led the improvement of various key indicators in Namibia education sector in recent years, notably, physical access, gross enrolment rate, and net enrolment Rate. However, although strategies like free primary education in terms of tuition fees, parents and communities in African countries continue to contribute towards items such as compulsory school uniforms, textbooks, parent-teacher associations, and in some cases, temporary teachers‟ allowance and school buildings. On the basis of this, the researcher is in agreement with the EFA GMR (2010) report, which argues that abolishing school fees has little impact on equal access, and does not reduce the
dropout rates if schools (like in Namibia) are still allowed to levy additional school fees, such as building and school activity funds. This results in a substantial increase in the dropout rate; particularly in the schools that enrol children from poor, marginalised, and nomadic pastoralist families.

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Equity and quality in the Namibian education system

Namibia obtained its independence in 1990, the same year in which the World Conference on Education for All (WCEDA) was held in Jontein, Thailand. Since obtaining independence, the Namibian government has committed itself to achieving the MDGs by ensuring that all primary school age children are enrolled by 2015, and able to complete a full primary school cycle. The government‟s commitment towards achievement of equity, quality education and equal access and opportunities to learn is reflected in several policy frameworks and reports such as the Education and Training Sector for Improvement Programme (ETSIP, 2005-2020), Towards Education For All (1993), the Education Act of 2001, Policy Options of Educational Marginalised Children (2000) etc.
These policies are oriented mainly to address inequities and disparities inherited from the South African apartheid education system; both through the redistribution and reallocation of education resources to previous disadvantaged and/or underserved regions or communities, and remote schools to expand access to schooling for all primary school age children.

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION, BACKGROUND, PROBLEM, RATIONALE, RESEARCH DESIGN
1.1. Introduction to the study
1.2. Background of Namibia
1.3. Rationale for the study
1.4. Purpose and objective of the study
1.5. Problem statement and research question
1.6. The conceptual framework for the study
1.7. Quality in education
1.8. Research methodology
1.9. Limitations of the study
1.10. Significance of the study
1.11. Organisation of the chapters
CHAPTER 2. EQUITY AND QUALITY AS EDUCATIONAL IMPERATIVES
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Equity in education
2.3. Quality in education
2.4. Equity and quality: International perspective
2.5. Equity and quality education: Developing country perspective
2.6. Equity and quality education to nomadic groups in a developing country context
2.7. Conclusion
CHAPTER 3. EQUITY AND QUALITY: STRATEGIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Enrolment and participation rates in sub-Sahara Africa
3.3. Strategies used in attaining MDGs
3.4. Equity and quality in the Namibian education system
3.5. Provisioning education for nomads in Namibia
3.6. Conclusion
CHAPTER 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Research design
4.2.1 Naturalism
4.2.2 Understanding
4.2.3 Discovery
4.3. The researcher as the research instrument
4.4. Entering the field
4.5. Ethical considerations
4.6. Research sampling and site
4.7. Data collection
4.8. Data analysis
4.9. Trustworthiness and credibility
4.10. Limitations
4.11. Summary
CHAPTER 5. THE HIMBA AND ZEMBA PEOPLE
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Culture and formal education
5.3. Features of Himba and Zemba culture that make the provisioning of education difficult
5.4. Conclusion
CHAPTER 6. PROVISIONING OF EDUCATION FOR THE HIMBA AND ZEMBA
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Education provisioning in pre-independent Namibia
6.3. Education provision in independent Namibia
6.4. Education provision for Himba and Zemba people
6.5. The organisation and administration of mobile schools
6.6. The NAMAS Era
6.7. Ondao mobile school under the Ministry of Education
6.8. Physical services
6.9. Instructional experiences
6.10. Conclusion
CHAPTER 7. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
7.1. Introduction
7.2. Summary of findings
7.3. Findings related to the culture/education interface
7.4. Contribution of this study to knowledge production
7.5. Conclusion
REFERENCES
ANNEXURES

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