Teachers Union rejects English Language Proficiency

The proposed English Language Proficiency Programme (ELPP) has proved to be a bitter pill to swallow as the Teachers Union this week rejected the proposed programme citing problems in the formulation and implementation of such a programme.
“The teachers who are supposed beneficiaries of this programme view it as not addressing the problems they have. In essence they think that it fails to add value, either directly as English teachers or as a medium of teaching” stated the Vice President of the Teacher Union, Toini Nauyoma, at a press conference in Windhoek, specially called to air the teacher union’s view.
She stated that there is the issue of transmission or the physical teaching of the programme that is done by the very same teachers who themselves are lacking in the skills that they are supposed to be teaching. She identified a lack of input from relevant stakeholders in the compilation and formulation of the programme, hence its failure to reach the target audience.

“We at TUN are definitely not aware of the thorough analysis and the studies of the educational system that are supposed to have precede the development and implementation of the ELPP. There is nothing that was shared with us or any publication of this process intended to inform the greater public, which includes us, that we are aware of.”said Nauyoma. Nauyoma agreed with the Permanent Secretary and the education ministry on the issue of reviewing the national language as cited in the National Education Conference but castigated the implementation of the ELPP as she identified it as a “disjointed and piece meal programme”.
“We have requested the ministry to put on hold  this whole programme until all aspects of it are properly studied and scrutinized but they seem not to want to listen to our requests. We have tried to persuade them otherwise but they are adamant that this is a useless exercise and we as representatives are now left with no option, but to let them do as they please” she explained.
Nauyoma closed the news conference by issuing a stern warning to the ministry, that if there is to be forcible and compulsory writing of the examinations, all blame and actions taken will be the ministry’s own doing.