2017: a new beginning for high school education

Chanel Botha
The Ministry of education recently unveiled its plans for implementing a new high school curriculum. The new curriculum was implemented for grade 8s in 2017. The old curriculum will continue for current grade 9 to 12 scholars until 2020.

Imago interviewed Mr Patrick Simalumba, Deputy Director Curriculum Research and Development at the Ministry of Basic Education, about the implementation timetable of the revised curriculum.

The new curriculum for grade 10 and 11 scholars will continue to be known as Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary levels (NSSCO) and will replace the current NSSCO grade 11 and 12 curriculum.

The current Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Higher levels (NSSCH) grade 11 and 12 curriculum will be replaced by the new one year Grade 12 Namibia Secondary School Certificate Advanced Subsidiary (”NSSCAS”) curriculum. Selected schools in each region will offer the new NSSCAS curriculum. According to Mr Simalumba, the Ministry of Basic Education is still in the process of identifying these selected schools.

Timetable of new curriculum

Mr Simalumba explained that the timetable of the new and old curriculum is as follows:

Year First year of new curriculum Last year of old curriculum 2018 Grade 9 semi external examinations to proceed to new grade 10 and 11 2-year NSSCO curriculum Grade 10 scholars will write the last JSC exams to proceed to the old grade 11 NSSCO / NSSCH curriculum Grade 12 will write third last old NSSCO / NSSCH curriculum 2019 Grade 10 first of new 2-year NSSCO curriculum Grade 12 will write second last old NSSCO / NSSCH exams 2020 Grade 11 write first new NSSCO exams Grade 12 write last old NSSCO / NSSCH exams 2021 Selected grade 12 scholars write first NSSCAR exams at selected schools

Implications of the new curriculum

Implementation of any new educational system will naturally bring many challenges with it. One such challenge will be that Grade 9 scholars will be allowed to repeat their grade, should they fail. This could be challenging for many schools, as they would need to accommodate the learners who failed, as well as those who passed grade 8. The challenge of accommodating learners will be alleviated by the fact that only selected scholars will proceed to NSSCAR grade 12 at selected schools and therefore the classroom space and teaching resources that they would have required could now be utilised by repeat grade 9 scholars.

Aside from the academic impact it will have, there are many other implications of implementing the new curriculum that need to be taken into consideration. Sports teams in school leagues will be affected due to many learners completing their school careers at a younger age than normal, with the average age possibly decreasing to 17 years. As most senior leagues are u/19, it may lead to schools struggling to fill these leagues, as many learners leave school before they reach those teams.

It will also be interesting to see how Universities in Namibia, South Africa and other countries will calculate the admission points (APT) for university entrance for the new Grade 11 NSSCO certification and Grade 12 NSSCAS certification.

2017 will definitely only be the beginning of a very interesting phase in our Namibian education.