Editorial, Reform Forum Number 12

Welcome to the second issue in the new millennium, Number 12, of the Reform Forum. In this issue, we have a selection of themes ranging from the Customer Service Charter, BETD first year students’ disposition to Mathematics, and the evaluation of the impact of the BES Project in the Ondangwa West Education Region.

The first article written by Jani Van Greunen, sets out to predict how the Service Charters launched by the Government of the Republic of Namibia can bring about a performance transformation in Education service, should available instruments be used and organisational learning finds its way into the culture of Education as an organisation. The paper answers questions such as: Can these charters improve effectiveness and efficiency of Education in Namibia; what are the prerequisites to realise performance improvement; what are the implications of the quest for efficiency, effectiveness and customer focus; and which instruments can be used to deploy and activate the process towards achieving break-through performance? The writer wishes to argue that without organisation-wide learning, intellectual grasp of the concepts and personal agreement with principles and benefits, together with the ability and opportunity to put into practice what has been learned, success is not guaranteed. Every official in education should be able to identify his/her customer and understand what customer-orientation entails.

Birgit Brock-Utne looks at the effects of the policies on Education for All for the education sector in Africa as it is laid down at the Jomtien meeting, Thailand. Through experiences gained from following some basic education projects in Africa, the writer sees two great areas of concern. The one deals with the content of schooling, the relevance of the situation children are in, while the other one deals with the language in which the content is transmitted. These two issues do not seem to concern the donors to education in Africa. One concern which seems to bother them is the importance of educating the girls. Toward the end of the article the writer looks at the development of the donor organisation DAE (Donor to African Education) into the organisation ADEA (Association for the Development of Education in Africa). The writer asks some relevant questions: To what extent can this donor commitment mean a new deal for education in Africa? And to what extent are we here dealing with a real partnership, a partnership where the African countries assume leadership roles when it comes to policy-making in their own countries?

In BETD First Year students’ disposition to Mathematics, Y.A. Alausa investigates the disposition of some student teachers at a college of education in Namibia to Mathematics. These student teachers were asked through a questionnaire to rate their own knowledge of the contents of their mathematics education syllabus. Eighty four (84) students who constituted 93.33% of the target population completed the questionnaire. The study reveals that most of the students have favourable dispositions to Mathematics. Many of them also rated themselves highly on most of the topics in the syllabus.

Amushila attempts to present the impact made in Ondangwa West by the BES Project when the writer highlights some effective organisational structures and functions which have created a conducive environment and made the Project functions successfully. He ends with suggestions and recommendations made by teachers and principals of the cluster schools.

Patti Swarts gives a background of what the Instructional Skills Certificate (ISC) is, who should take it, and where the programme currently is based.

In the last article, Joy Du Plessis gives a summary of activities under the BES Target School Component, lessons learned and recommendations for sustained support in the target schools. The report is meant to inform Regional and Head offices of the Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture, the BES (1) Project team of the Institute for International Research, USAID and the BES (2) Project team.