An Analysis of Challenges Facing the Implementation of Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Advanced Subsidiary

An Analysis of Challenges Facing the Implementation of Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Advanced Subsidiary

Kamati Naalo Priskila¹, Elock Emvula Shikalepo^2*

¹Directorate of Education, Arts and Culture: Khomas Region, Namibia

²The International University of Management, Namibia

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.803383S

Received: 26 October 2024; Accepted: 09 October 2024; Published: 26 November 2024

ABSTRACT

The study intended to explore the readiness of the implementation of Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Advanced Subsidiary in secondary schools in Ohangwena region. A qualitative research methodology was used, carried out through a case study design. Purposive sampling was used to select participants for the study. Questionnaires and interview were used as data collection methods. The collected data was analysed using thematic analysis. Key findings revealed that participants were unaware of the criteria’s used to select the schools that shall offer Advanced Subsidiary Curricullum. Schools that offer Advanced Subsidiary seemed to have been selected based on assumptions such as human capital, availability of resources and infrastructures, teachers experience and former Namibia Senior Secondary School Certificate Higher level classification.

Teachers experienced difficulties in implementing and managing the Advanced Subsidiary curriculum due to numerous factors such as late release of grade 11 Namibia Senior Secondary School Certificate Ordinary level results, lack of teaching and learning resources, dilapidated facilities, shortage of teachers who are experienced in teaching higher level subjects, complex and lengthy Advanced Subsidiary content that cannot be covered within the time frame allocated for instruction and assessment.

The study concluded that curriculum planning and rolling out of the AS-Level curriculum was not done after proper consultations. If consultations were done, schools could have been provided with enough resources before introducing the curriculum. This would have ensured that schools were prepared to roll-out the implementation of the AS-Level curriculum with minimum to no hurdles at all.

Keywords: Advanced Subsidiary, curriculum implementation, curriculum reform, Teachers, teaching and learning.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Basic education system in Namibia has been reformed and changed three times since independence in 21 March 1990. The first reform was the introduction of the new curriculum and examination system for the senior secondary phase in the early 1990s. The grade 10 Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) was introduced in 1993 for promotion to the secondary phase. The International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) and the Higher International General Certificate of Secondary Education (HIGCSE) examination was adopted in 1994, benchmarked on the standard of University of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate, with the first examination written in 1995, (MoE, 2017).

Between 2004 and 2005, the second basic education reform was embarked upon. This reform introduced the localisation of IGCSE and HIGCSE to the Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary and Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Higher (NSSCO/H) level with the first examination written in 2007. Additionally, the facing out of technical subjects and introduction of design and technology subjects was also part of this reform (MoE, 2017). In February 2011, the Ministry of Education (MoE) conveyed a National Conference on education system, structures and other relevant bodies. Six months later (August 2011), cabinet gave the MoE specific directives and guidance to implement the recommendations emanated from the National Conference on Education that was held February 2011. The MoE was tasked to assess and review national curriculums more regularly than only once every seven years to cater for the emerging needs of the Namibian society and to ensure that the curriculum remains relevant to the challenges that Namibia and its learners face (NIED, 2016). Since then, Namibia education curriculums has undergone reviews after every five years.

In 2012, the third reform to the basic education was embarked upon and entailed the phasing out of HIGCSE and NSSCO/H curriculum and assessment, review of basic education curricula, brought changes in educational structures and re-introduction of technical subjects. The reform further included introduction of semi-external examinations at the end of grade 9 (written for the first time in 2018) and the two years course of grade 10 and grade 11. Moreover, the changes further include the introduction of Advanced-Subsidiary level course, equivalent to the Cambridge Advanced Subsidiary level with the first examination taken by the grade 12 learners at the end of 2021. With the newly introduced crucial Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Advanced Subsidiary (NSSC-AS) level, a lot of work and preparation needed to be done to prepare the schools and teachers for the innovation that is completely different from the old curriculum of grade 12. Hence, this study intended to explore the readiness of secondary schools in implementing the new NSSC-AS curriculum, with the aim of advancing insights on how the NSSC-AS can be implemented in Namibian secondary schools.

Statement of the problem

Namibia’s NSSC-AS level also known as AS-Level is offered as a one-year course to the grade 12 learners after they pass their grade 11 (NSSCO). The AS-Level is intending to prepare learners with advanced education and give them a good school-completion record warranting them a chance for admission to various universities in Africa and beyond. An effective implementation of NSSC-AS level is crucial for ensuring learners are equipped with the intended advanced education. Since the implementation of the NSSC-AS curriculum, schools have raised concerns about their preparedness to roll out the intended curriculum. Consequently, the results of the NSSC-AS curriculum have not been impressive as anticipated since its implementation. Hence, this study sought to evaluate the implementation of the NSSC-AS with the aim of uncovering the challenges that faced the implementation of the AS-Level curriculum.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A qualitative approach was employed in this study, requiring participants to share their views concerning the implementation and management of the NSSC-AS level. and this could only be achieved through open-ended questionnaires. Qualitative research approach has a high return of detailed results from the participants and can help provide a better understanding of the issues around the subject in discussion (Busetto et al. 2020). The qualitative research methodology was carried out through a case study design. A case study has been described as an intensive, systematic investigation of a single individual, group, community or some other unit in which the researcher examines in-depth data relating to several ASPECTS (Heale & Twycross, 2017). A case study design was the best preferred because offer detailed and in-depth information about the implementation and readiness of schools in offering NSSC-AS level.

Non-probability sampling method was used to select the participants. Purposive or judgemental sampling technique was employed to select the sample size so that only people who are typica to NSSC-AS level could participate in the study. Purposive or judgemental sampling is a strategy in which settings, persons or events are selected deliberately to provide important information that cannot be obtained from other choices (Taherdoost, 2016). Only teachers, HoDs and Principals were selected because they are the ones implementing the NSSC-AS curriculum. These participants have first-hand information about the NSSC-AS curriculum and were to provide useful insights in understanding the implementation and management of NSSC-AS curriculum in schools.

Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the teachers while interviews were used to collect data from the HoDs and Principals. The data was analysed thematically. Thematic analysis is a method that systematically identify, organise, and offer insight into, patterns of meaning (themes) across a dataset (Braun & Clarke, 2012). Through focusing on meaning across a dataset, thematic analysis allows the researcher to see and make sense of collective or shared meanings and experiences of participants in relation to what the study intends to achieve.

Findings and Discussion

While implementing and executing the new curriculum (NSSC-AS), teachers were experiencing several challenges that limited them in effectively implementing and managing the new curriculum. The challenges related to late release of Grade 11 NSSCO results, availability of resources, lack of infrastructure and unequipped infrastructure, bulky subject content, and lack of NSSCH-AS level teaching experience. These challenges are discussed next.

Late release of grade 11 results

Most of the respondents gave their views when asked about the challenges faced by teachers in implementing and managing AS-Level curriculum. When they shared much of their experiences one of the common experiences from their response is the late release of NSSCO level (grade 11) results. In the past two years of the implementation of the new curriculum, the NSSCO results were released early February when school academic year has already started. Selection and enrolment of learners that qualifies for AS-Level takes about a week from the date the results were released and teaching and learning of grade 12 starts a week thereafter. This situation only left teachers with only about seven months including the month of June-July which is holiday to finish or complete the AS-Level curriculum of the grade 12 learners as indicated by the participant from School B, who added that “this situation is very challenging with that given little time because some of the objectives in some of the subjects are not very clear and they are too broad, thus one has to spend more time planning and trying to simplify objectives for the learners”. The time is not enough because the AS-Level learners start late compared to other learners, which is the complicated by the too broad and deep learning objectives, making teachers to spend a lot of time for instruction.

The time allocated for grade 12 lessons is only 40 minutes per lesson for 8 period on a 7-day cycle (NIED, 2016). This is insufficient time to finish a year course because out of that 40 minutes, 5 minutes is spent on learners moving from one class to the next or teachers moving from one class to the next class depending on classroom exchange routine practiced at the school. This caused pressure on teachers to complete the lengthy syllabus of subjects such as Mathematics. Consequently, teachers have to teach extra hours after school and during the weekends leaving them with little to no time for planning. Inexperienced or rather teachers that have no experience teaching Higher Level are highly pressurised because they need more time to teach some objectives and that more time is required to find necessary information for planning.

The issue of limited time allocated to teaching is confirmed by (Zydziunaite et al. 2020), who also indicated that less time allocated to teachers to do their work causes stress among teachers and therefore affecting their teaching abilities. One of the participants from School A also had a similar concern about late release of grade 11 results and further commented on the recruitment of AS-Level teachers to reduce the burden. The participants shared that “NSSCO results are released late and therefore limiting the teaching time available to teach the lengthy subject content at AS-Level, also more teachers should be recruited to reduce the burden on the AS-Level teachers.

Given the lengthy subject contents of almost all subject offered on AS-Level, it is really a burden for one teacher to be given more than two subjects on AS-Level and again maintain the load of ordinary level or junior grades subjects. It is too much of work, limiting proper planning and effective knowledge delivery from the teacher’s side. Therefore, teachers contend that less time is allocated for the lessons to finish their syllabus.

Resources Availability

The other challenge that most teachers pointed out is the availability of resources such as textbooks, internet facilities, computers and other relevant educational resources related to the introduction of the curriculum at their respective schools that would make the implementation of the new curriculum easier and manageable. These findings agreed with the findings made by Katshuna and Shikalepo (2023), who established that the implementation of the new curriculum was faced by serious shortages of instructional facilities with detrimental effects on the quality of teaching and learning. According to the National Curriculum for Basic Education (National Institute for Educational Development (NIED), 2016) every teacher for AS-Level curriculum must have sufficient resources to ensure the effective learning and teaching of AS-Level curriculum. However, most teachers expressed lack of teaching and learning materials in their schools as stipulated due to lack of funds from the school’s side to purchase those resources or the Ministry of Education to provide them with the required material/resources. One participant expressed that “no textbooks for Agricultural science and other resources since the subject was not even offered on Higher Level on the previous curriculum, therefore it’s difficult to get resources to at least compare the content and internet is not accessible by learners”.

In a similar study regarding the implementation of new curriculum, it was found that if the resource requirements and their use are not planned correctly, this may lead to difficulties in implementing the new curriculum (Nkosi, 2014). It was further argued that resources such as Human resources, equipment’s, space and facility are one of the pertinent resources required for the implementation of the curriculum. This indicates that curriculum implementation and its subsequent success depends on availability of required resources. Therefore, it is important for the Ministry of Education to provide the necessary resources to the schools. This study established that the textbooks for learners are not enough, some textbooks for some subjects are not yet available at schools, and some subjects such as Agricultural science do not have textbooks at all, and the subject was never offered on Higher Level in the previous curriculum at these schools. This implies that little to no resources for such subjects to compare for planning purposes and this lack of resources made it difficult for learning to take place because, firstly it disadvantages the teachers when planning, and secondly, it affects the learners because they receive insufficient instruction and guidance, subsequently contributing negatively towards their final examination grading.

On the issue of textbooks, Mothowanaga and Gladwin, (2022) reported that the scarcity of learners and teacher textbooks contribute to the school’s insufficient preparation to apply the curriculum. Curriculum implementation relies heavily on learning materials such as textbooks. This was confirmed by a participant who expressed that “teachers are the only source of information for learners in the absence of textbooks. The challenges faced are for example learners having no textbooks meaning I am the only source of information for them”.
The issue of lack of resources is also confirmed by Lizer (2013), that even though the teachers understand how to implement curriculum change, the issue of resources is the main cause of ineffective teaching and learning during the new curriculum implementation. The author further argues that there is no point in running workshops for teachers on laboratory work if their schools have no equipment and even laboratories to perform experiment.

In our study participants from both schools also spoke about the lack of computers for the learners to use to do further research on the topics they cover at school. AS-Level learners only have three to five subjects maximum on AS-Level depending on the subjects they qualified for. The learners have some periods off due to the designs of their timetables with the subjects they have, which means they spent some of their time unoccupied during school hours. Therefore, if they had functional computer labs and updated libraries at the school, they could utilise their free time researching on topics they did not understand in class. On the issue of lack of computers, one participant stated that “we need computers for learners to be able to research more about subject related information. We also need textbooks because we don’t have textbooks at all”.

Altogether on the issue of resources, most responses reflect a lack of resources, mostly textbooks, laboratory materials and computers, therefore, both teachers and learners are struggling to cope with the implementation of this AS-Level curriculum.

Unequipped or dilapidated infrastructure

Apart from lack of resources in both schools, the other issue many participants complained about is the dilapidated infrastructures and/or unequipped infrastructures. The dilapidated infrastructures complained by participants from both schools includes classrooms, laboratories, libraries and hostels. Most respondents shared their views openly on the status quo of the facilities in their schools. Judging from the responses given by the respondents, it shows that, even though they have libraries at schools, they are not very effective because libraries are not equipped with updated books and books that have relevant information about the new curriculum. Learners do not make use of the libraries because they don’t get anything helpful with their learning. A participant shared that “there are no updated textbooks and teaching resources at the library that are in line with the new curriculum. Science laboratory is also not equipped with chemicals and new proper apparatus to be used for experiments due to lack of funds”.

On the contrary, one of the participants gave a contradicting response to the previous one. This was quite interesting because some of the participants indicated that they have a well functional and equipped library that learners use. The contradicting participant shared that “we have a well-equipped Science laboratory to assist the learners during experiments and the library gives an opportunity to the learners by borrowing books related to different subjects to broaden their knowledge”.

This contradictory response from this participant could be an indication of either some schools being resourced better than others, or dishonest from the school side aimed at protecting the school image or for what is acceptable in the community, as generally most participants indicated lack of resources.

Apart from the poorly resources libraries at the school, the computer laboratories in the school are also not equipped with enough computers to be used by learners during their off periods. With the rapid increase in the use of technology in society, learners are still disadvantaged because there are insufficient computers at the school. Therefore, learners only rely on limited textbooks as sources of information when they need to do seek for information. Teachers also experience difficulties due to lack of conducive classrooms which is manifested by overcrowded classrooms, and due to that difficulty teachers make use of the library to accommodate some of the learners making the laboratory to be ineffective teaching venue for what it was meant for because it is not used for its main purpose anymore. This is proved by one participant who asserts “the school library has little to no resources of AS-Level courses and the laboratory is slightly effective but the time to use it is limited because it is used as a classroom due to lack of classrooms to accommodate the learners”. Another participant added that “the science laboratory is well taken care off but most of the necessary tools are not there, such as chemicals for practicals and investigations”.

The issue of lack of laboratory equipment’s and chemicals for practical is also emphasised by Lizer (2013) in the study about the impact of the curriculum change on the teaching and learning. AS-Level science subjects require certain types of apparatus and chemicals that were never used in the previous curriculum, but the schools were not yet equipped with some of the required apparatus and during this study respondents stated that equipment’s and chemicals were delivered late to the schools by government, leaving them with the whole year to teach without doing experiments with the learners. This agrees with Kaupitwa and Amuthenu (2022) on the issue of lack of equipment and suitable chemicals, who pointed out that most Namibian secondary school science teachers find it difficult to teach practical work, forcing teachers to teach using demonstration methods rather than experiments in teaching practical work. This consequently contributes to deteriorating learners’ performance because they end up not being familiar with some of the apparatus when they will be required to write a practical examination paper.
Generally, good infrastructures encourage learning among learners because they are always motivated to attend school regularly. A conducive learning atmosphere promotes comfortability of learners and for them to grasp what they are taught with ease. However, overcrowded classrooms on the other hand affects the understanding of learners in classes. Participants reported old infrastructures and overcrowded classrooms, giving their views about the hostel facilities, saying “all learners doing AS-Level are accommodated in the hostel although the rooms are over-crowded. Another hostel block is needed to accommodate all the learners in future”.

Considering that only a few schools are selected to offer AS-Level, most learners that qualifies to enrol for AS-Level flock to these schools, yet the capacity of the school cannot accommodate them all. Most of the time, these learners most likely to come from distant locations, meaning they need hostel accommodation. Therefore, shortage of hostel spaces at schools offering the AS-Level may also have a potential to limit or discourage some of the learners that would want to apply to those schools, hence, something needs to be done to remedy this situation.

Bulky and difficult subject content

There are many views from the participants about the lengthy or bulky subject content’s, stressing “that the time is not enough at all to cover the lengthy subject content, putting a burden on both the teachers and the learners as they have to continue with schoolwork in the afternoons, there is no time to rest”. Every year in every academic discipline knowledge continues to emerge and it’s the responsibility of the teachers to ensure that their learners are on par with the new knowledge as developing. Teachers have to go an extra mile and do research to provide their learners with the most recent knowledge. However, due to the already bulky subject content of AS-Level, teachers only rush through the syllabus with the aim of finishing. This does not only leave the learners exhausted but also yielding poor results at the end of the day. Some participants indicated that they could not finish their syllabuses in 2021 because the content was too much as much as they tried to push incorporating other alternative and different teaching approaches. One participant expressed that “time is not enough at all since AS-Level learners start late and the subject content is too lengthy to cover in the remaining time when the learners start, this puts a burden on the teachers and learners as they are forced to teach in the afternoons, weekends and holidays in order to finish the syllabus”.

There is no time to rest in the new education system of the AS-Level, teachers have no choice but to teach during weekends and on school holidays. Learners spend most of their time at schools and no time for other activities such as sports, they have to keep up with the schoolwork. Another participant indicated that the “syllabus for Mathematics is too large to cover in one year. Most of the respondent experience that AS-Level content is too large and difficult”. And another participant claims “the time is insufficient to the content for mathematic, the content is too large and too difficult which makes it difficult to transfer knowledge to the learners”.

Mathematics alone is already a crucial subject that is generally feared by many learners. With one objective the teachers have to go through twice or even three times for learners to understand and be able to apply it. Now given the large content of AS-Level, one would wonder when will they be able to finish that content, and should they finish, will they be able to produce quality results? The findings of this study agree with some of previous researchers (Nevenglosky & Cale, 2019) who researched on curriculum implementation and found that some content in some subjects is too difficult, and it makes it difficult for the teachers to do planning and to deliver the content to the learners, subsequently producing poor results. In addition, inadequate resource provision compromises the effectiveness of the implementation of the curriculum and continues to necessitate adequate resource provision for teachers (Shikalepo & Katshuna, 2023).

Lack of NSSCH- level teaching experience

The researcher asked the participants about their experiences of teaching AS-Level compared to NSSCH level, to get an insight of the AS-Level curriculum compared to NSSCO/H level curriculum. Participants gave different views but many of them shared that they never taught higher level because they are novice teachers. Some teachers when answered whether they have experience in teaching NSSCH level of the previous curriculum, indicated that they have never taught higher level because their schools offering AS-Level now did not offer higher level in the previous curriculum. As expected, those that never taught higher level curriculum experience difficulties in teaching AS-Level because everything is completely new to them. They lack experience, they are only relying on their university knowledge and some of them left university some years ago. One participant claims that “I have never taught AS-Level nor higher level because I have just started teaching”. Another participant supports that “Agricultural science was never offered on higher level in the old curriculum, I am using my tertiary existing knowledge to offer the AS-Level curriculum and it’s quite difficult because of the challenging content”.

Lack of higher-level experience to some teachers proves to be a challenge to the teachers because the AS-Level content is said to be pitched at a higher level compared to the previous content that was offered at NSSCH level. There is a huge difference in terms of content itself and content delivery between the two levels. Teachers have to do everything to ensure teaching and learning is taking place despite the struggles they go through.

CONCLUSION

There is an overall indication from the findings of this study that the time provided for the teachers to complete the AS-Level subject syllabus is insufficient compared to the content of each subject, even though the teachers are trying their level best to use other alternatives in their teaching and incorporating different teaching methodologies to minimise the situation. Large subject content is burden to both teachers and learners, teachers don not do proper planning because there is no time, learners are overwhelmed by a lot of work, and this could lead to panic attacks and anxiety when they prepare for their final examination.

For some of the subjects that were not offered on higher level, it is very difficult for the teachers to find relevant information when they do their planning, there is less material available for the teachers to compare with. Nevertheless, teachers make use of online information yet again some of the schools have poor access to internet as discussed earlier. Teachers have to cope with lack of experience, lack of materials, large content and difficult content in less time fame to complete the syllabus. Clearly those responsible for curriculum planning and rolling out of the AS-Level curriculum have not done proper consultations. Should they have done so, they could have provided enough materials to the schools before introducing the curriculum. This would have ensured that schools were prepared to roll-out the implementation of the AS-Level curriculum with minimum to no hurdles at all.

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