THE silly season, or politics of promises, as others know it, has seen different political parties making a myriad of promises to Namibian voters over the past couple of months.

With less than five weeks left, The Namibian takes a closer look at what promises the manifestos of various political parties hold for the voter.

Several stories will appear over the next couple of weeks taking under the microscope issues such as education, health, housing/water/sanitation, crime/safety, land/agriculture, employment/development, business and economics as well as gender equality.

IT’S all rhetoric and very little detail when it comes to how the 14 political parties contesting this year’s national elections will finance their programmes to improve the education sector.

Five years ago the ruling Swapo Party had very specific targets set, one of which was to identify top Grade 7 pupils at various schools in the 13 regions of the country to become future scientists.

Swapo had promised to put up a mechanism to monitor the performance of the pupils as they progress and to set aside money for their placement “in the best tertiary institutions in Namibia and other countries” as part of a national strategy to meet human resource development by 2020.

The beneficiaries of the bursaries were to be contractually bonded to work for the Government for at least 10 years.
That was the ruling party’s promise as part of its commitment to ensure “the highest standard of education” for the youth.
Five years down the line there is no sign of the promise being kept.

In fact, last year Government was left red-faced after South Africa revealed that an offer of 100 places to study at that country’s universities had been ignored for more than a year.

This had emerged during official talks between the delegations of President Hifikepunye Pohamba and Thabo Mbeki.
What has emerged of late is that Namibia had access to various bursaries for under-privileged but bright young pupils to study in China.

They have, however, been awarded to the children of high-level Government officials, including several ministers and President Pohamba himself.

As for educational promises for the next five years, the ruling party’s manifesto has avoided specific targets this time.
It prefers to dwell on education being key to national economic and social development.

“The party continues to strongly support the implementation of the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP), as a roadmap for the education improvement to meet the goals set in the Vision 2030,” the manifesto states.

Swapo promises to review and improve pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary education; enhance vocational training and skills development; ensure sustainable supply of medium- to high-skilled labour; expand existing vocational training centres; improve and expand the educational infrastructure and delivery system and provide educational opportunities to adults and out-of-school youth.

No time span is set for any of these targets.

In sharp contrast, the DTA of Namibia promises free but compulsory basic education up to the of age 16 years or Grade 7.
“Secondary and tertiary education will be neither compulsory nor free, but the DTA of Namibia will attempt to satisfy the demand for education by providing an adequate number of bursaries,” the party, whose popularity has waned over the past 19 years, said.

The word “adequate” left room for speculation while the party was not clear on how it would fund the bursaries.
What was clear, though, was that under a DTA government, those who fail Grade 10 would not have to worry about returning to school.

The new kid on Namibia’s political map, the Rally for Democracy and Progress, regards education and training as the heartbeat of economic transformation and development.

They promise to turn the tide on the current education system, which they claim “produces functionally illiterate children who end up on the streets”, with “visionary action” such as overhauling the system and reintroducing pre-primary schools.

RDP also promises to grant bursaries to at least 65 per cent of all students who obtain university admission but, like the DTA, does not spell out how funds will be raised.

The Congress of Democrats (CoD) promises to remove all hidden costs in education, and makes the bold promise of free education up to the basic degree level.

Ben Ulenga’s party also promises to roll out libraries to all schools and to ensure each pupil has textbooks on his or her desk.
The National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) proposes offering free education up to Grade 12; each region having at least one technical school; cutting teacher-student ratios; ensuring affordable, quality pre-school education; ending the system of ‘automatic transfer’ of ‘slow learners’ to the next grade; increasing the number of student teachers and bursaries for subjects such as maths and science; and introducing incentives for qualified teachers to teach in rural areas, among others.

However, the manifesto also has largely generalised statements of intent as many other opposition parties with no specific target dates or how spending will be done.

Namibia’s oldest political party, the South West Africa National Union (Swanu) will put more emphasis on “vocational/professional opportunities” while strengthening the mandate of the Polytechnic to produce more “technical graduates as opposed to degree candidates”, according to its manifesto.

Under the United Democratic Front primary education will be free and compulsory at primary level but affordable at secondary and tertiary levels.

Again, what is affordable to a Member of Parliament might not be affordable to a pensioner who gets an allowance only enough to buy one 12,5 kg bag of maize, one 12,5 kg bag of sugar and to pay the water and electricity bill, but with nothing left over.
The party also promises to re-admit those who fail Grade 10 and build houses for teachers in rural areas to attract them there.

The All People’s Party, if voted into Government, would give free education up to first degree level and allow for the repetition of Grades 10 and 12 at least once.

The party also promises to recall retired but fit teachers back to school to help with teaching.
This year’s manifestos generally lack detail on how parties intend spending on education.

The Namibian