Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698746836254.pdf (Namibia)
REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, ARTS AND CULTURE (MoEAC) BUDGET MOTIVATION STATEMENT VOTE 10 2019/20 - 2021/22 TABLED IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY BY HONOURABLE KATRINA HANSE-HIMARWA, MP Minister of Education, Arts and Culture 26 APRIL 2019 1 Honourable Chairperson of the Whole House CommiHee, Honourable Members, 1.
It is my duty and I am indeed privileged, to rise today, representing the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, to officially motivate the allocation to Vote 10 for the financial year 2019-2020, for the consideration, support and approval of this August House.

Honourable Chairperson of the Whole House CommiHee, Honourable Members, 2.
Allow me from the onset to acknowledge and sincerely thank the Minister of Finance, Honourable Calle Schlettwein and his team for the allocation made to our Ministry for this financial year.

During his presentation he reflected on the Fiscal Consolidation Strategy that Government has embarked upon.
In particular he noted and I quote that "We are aware that the actions taken to rebalance public finances have caused short-term pains, but we are confident that the long-term benefits of sustainable fiscal policy outcomes far outweigh the short-term impacts," end of quote.

In this context, I once again reiterate our Ministry's commitment to this course.

Honourable Chairperson of the Whole House CommiHee Honourable Members 3.
The Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture continues to receive the largest share of Government's budget which at 21% demonstrates government's unblemished commitment towards the future of our country.

It is worth noting that, the Ministry remains the biggest employer in the public sector with a staff complement of over 40,000 of which over 27,000 are teaching staff.

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2 4.

We have also recorded learner population increase of Fourteen Thousand Eight Hundred Fifty One (74,851), and this has moved our total learner population from Seven Hundred and Twenty Two Thousand, Two Hundred Forty Eight (722,248) to Seven Hundred Thirty Seven Thousand and Ninety Nine 737,099 according to Education, Management and Information System (EMIS) data of 2017 and 2018, respectively.
This overall annual increase of 2.1 % is lower than the average increases of 3.5 % recorded over the past three years.

Meanwhile enrolment of female learners remains slightly more with 1,312 more girls than boys.

Honourable Chairperson of the Whole House Committee Honourable Members 5.

The Ministry has a daunting responsibility with regards to its mandate of providing accessible, quality and inclusive education for pre-primary, primary and secondary learners, including the promotion of arts and culture.
For this purpose, the overall budget allocation to the Ministry for the 2019/20 financial year is Thirteen Billion, Seven Hundred and Sixty Seven Million, Six Hundred and Ninety Seven Thousand, Namibia Dollars (N$13, 767 697000).

When compared to the Thirteen Billion, Two Hundred and One Million, One Hundred and Fourty Seven Thousand (N$13 201 147 000) allocation in the 2018/19 financial year, this allocation translates to an overall increase of 4%, which is far below the inflation rate.

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6.

The allocation to the Ministry comprises the Operational Budget, which is Thirteen Billion, One Hundred and Seventeen Million, Nine Hundred and Eighty Four Thousand Namibia Dollars (N$13 117 984 000) and the Development Budget of Six Hundred and Fourty Nine Million Seven Hundred and Thirteen Thousand Namibia Dollars (N$649 713 000).

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3 7.

Eighty Three Percent (83%) or Eleven Billion, Four Hundred and Fifty Three Million, Three Hundred Sixty Four Thousand (NS 11 453 364000) of the allocation to the Ministry goes towards the defrayal of personnel expenditures.

A mere Five Percent (5%), is for capital expenditures, with the remaining Twelve Percent (12%) apportioned for other operational expenditures with the bulk being earmarked for regional transfers.
Being the largest Ministry in terms of employees, the Ministry is continuously focusing on redressing the increasing wage bill, albeit very difficult, by staff verifications, redeployment of staff from overstaffed schools to understaffed schools, as well as applying compensatory reduction strategies.

Thisis done, while being cognisant, not to compromise the quality of teaching and learning.

I wish to indicate that the Ministry is already seeing tangible results in this area.
Honourable Chairperson of the Whole House Committee Honourable Members 8.

The total budget allocated to the Ministry will be executed through the following sixkey programmes.
Allow me therefore, to highlight our mandate and achievements under each programme, as well as the budgetary allocations to such programmes for the current financial year: 8.1 Policy Coordination and Support Services This programme has been allocated an amount of Two Hundred and Five Million, Eight Hundred Eighty Six Thousand Namibia Dollars (N$205, 886, 000) to enable the provision of overall policy formulation, coordination, planning, management and financial administration at head office and to steer the execution of the ministerial mandate.
4 Major activities undertaken under this program includes: The drafting of revised regulations based on the revised Education Act has been finalised; while educational policies such as the National Safe Schools Framework and the Namibia School Feeding Programme were approved.

Other Policies such as the ICT Policy for Education Sport for Development Policy, School Health Policy, Review of the HIV/ AIDS Policy and hostel Policy are still in process.
With regards to the upgrading, renovation and construction of education physical facilities, as well as strengthening monitoring of ongoing capital projects, an amount of Seven Hundred and Fourty Six Million Namibia Dollars (N$746, 000, 000) from the total of 1billion from African Development Bank loan amount, has been allocated.

This is in addition to the Ministry's development budget, for the renovation of targeted schools and hostels in all fourteen regions.
8.2 Programme: Pre-Primary Education A total amount of Four Hundred and Sixty Six million, Nine Hundred Seventy Five Thousand Namibia Dollars (N$466,975,000) has been allocated to this program.

This is intended to aid the Ministry's drive to systematically expand access to education by a wider spectrum of our school going age population.

Currently about 50% eligible learners attend pre-primary classes.
This signifies an increase from 41,743 in 2017 (EMIS2017) to 43,448 according to our Annual Education Census (AEC, 2018), representing a growth of 4.1% (or 1,705 learners).

Thisincrease led to the requirement of 90 additional teachers.

Despite this significant increase, we have fallen short of meeting the targeted enrolment of 55% as per our Ministerial Strategic Plan.
5 Further, the Ministry received support from the European Union (EU)to the amount of eighty four million (N$84,OOO,OOO)to be utilized for educational development.

From this amount, N$49 million, N$8 million and N$27 million will be utilised for infrastructure development, teacher in-service training and acquisition of teaching and learning resource materials and school feeding, respectively.
8.3 For Primary Education program, an amount of Eight billion, Four Hundred and Thirty Five million, Four Hundred Fourty Four Thousand Namibia Dollars (N$ 8,435,444,000) has been apportioned.

Under this program, a total number of 500,994 learners were enrolled in Grades 1 to 7 in 2018 in the primary education phase, representing an increase of 17,309 learners.

The implementation of the Universal Primary Education grant removed the financial barrier of access to education.
Thisbrought about an average annual increase of 3.4% learner enrolment.

Furthermore, access to education is ensured through the provision of a single mid- morning meal to more than 377,521 beneficiaries through the Namibia School Feeding Programme including the efforts of diversification stipulated in the recently approved National school Feeding policy.

Regrettably, about 11.8 % (EMIS 2017 Survival Rate) of the enrolled children do not complete the primary education phase.
This trend is worrisome and the Ministry is committed to intensify the "Back to School" campaigns.

As of the year 2016 the Ministry has been implementing an In-service training course for under and unqualified teachers in collaboration with the University of Namibia responding to the need for qualified teachers 6 at the junior primary phase.

So far 1,955 un- and under qualified teachers are registered in this programme on a part-time basis.
To monitor and evaluate the teaching and learning standards in the classroom, Standardized Achievement Tests (which are diagnostic assessments), were written in Gr.5 and Gr.7 by 63,823 and 49,703 primary learners respectively.

Based on the subject related shortcomings pointed out in the results, teacher training activities will be conducted to improve quality of teaching.
8.4 Secondary Education Programme, With an allocation of Four billion, One Hundred and Fourty Eight million, Six Hundred and Fourty One Thousand Namibia Dollars (N$4, 148, 641, 000) in the current financial year, I wish to indicated that in 2018, a total of two hundred and two thousand, two hundred fifty two (202,252) learners were enrolled from grade 8 to 12 in 798 schools, of which 7.8% of these schools are private, providing education to 5.3% of the learner population (EMIS2017).
The implementation of fee-free secondary education as well as the revised curriculum drive the demand for classroom space and teachers.

It needs to be reiterated that the pre-vocational/technical subjects have been included in the school curriculum in the primary and secondary phases.

The Basic Pre-Vocational SkillsCourse has been developed to cater for learners with other learning needs and relevant teaching material were purchased to the value of eight (8) million Namibian Dollars.
7 Due to the revised curriculum, 52,157 Gr.9 learners wrote semi-external examinations in six (6) subjects.

This examination is to monitor and evaluate the teaching and learning processes in the classroom at junior secondary level to inform the system on the implementation of the revised syllabuses and on areas of improvement and interventions.
On the NDP5 and Harambee Prosperity Plan Targets, the following have been achieved: The quality output of secondary education shows that the total number of school leavers who qualify for entry into University with 25 points and above in 5 subjects improved over the years and stood at 39.3 % in 2017 and 40.4% in 2018.

In total 78.2% candidates qualified for entry to Tertiary Institutions for certificate, diploma and degree courses during the 2018 NSSCnational examinations.
Honourable Chairperson of the Whole House Committee, Honourable Members, 8.5 The Programme of Lifelong learning With an allocation of Five Hundred and Eight million, Eight Hundred Thirty Six Thousand Namibia Dollars (N$508, 836,000), this program houses the functions of Library and Archive Services; Adult Education; Arts and Culture.
While the previous programmes I mentioned earlier were focusing on the Namibian child, part of this program focuses on adults and their continuous development to ensure that those who did not have the opportunity to attend formal education in their childhood and youth, can upgrade themselves and promote Arts and Culture for national development.

8 The Libraries and Archives collect, preserve and disseminate Namibia's literary heritage.
These institutions are important cultural and knowledge institutions that are vital for historical, research and educational purposes.

A number of two hundred and seventy thousand, nine hundred and thirty two (270,932) members of the public accessed Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) services through public library networks country wide.
ICT Service at libraries is significant, as a lot of people do not have access to ICT at home and rely on the free internet services provided by the libraries.

A total of one million, fourty four thousand, three hundred and twelve (1,044,312) Library users were recorded country wide at National Library, National Archives, Public Ministerial and School Libraries.
A total number of sixteen thousand four hundred and thirty two (16,432) archival records were accessed by both national and international researchers and fifteen thousand, four hundred and thirty three (15,433) historical and national documents were digitized and made accessible to the public.
For Arts and Culture, one of the most notable achievements of the Ministry, is the hosting of Arts Summit of Southern Africa (ASSA),that was held at the Namibia Institute of Public Administration and Management (NIPAM) from the 21St to 23rd August 2018.
Thisevent, under the theme, "Human Creativity is a vital Economic, Social & Cultural Resource" aimed to highlight the untapped economic potential of the creative industries and to promote cultural experience as a way of drawing communities together, while enabling the understanding and celebration of histories and traditions.
9 The Culture sector managed two historic occasions, namely the a= Repatriation of 27 Human Remains of Namibian Origin and the return of Kaptein Hendrick Witbooi's Bible and the Whip from the Federal Republic of Germany.

These events represent important steps in terms of restoring the dignity for the Namibian people, particularly the decedents of the victims of the 1904-08 Genocide.
The Ministry established a working group that is tasked to develop a comprehensive framework that will guide the handling and management of Human Remains and other cultural artifacts in the future.

Namibia successfully submitted a nomination to UNESCO the aixan Igana lob #ans tsi Ilkhasigu translating to Englishas (ancestral musical sound, knowledge and skills) for possible inscription onto the UNESCOlist for Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
In terms of creating an enabling legal environment for the promotion and protection of heritage, the review of the Arts, Heritage and Culture Policy as well as the Heritage Act, 27 of 2004 have been completed and will be tabled in parliament for deliberations.
The Directorate of Adult Education (DAE) enrolled a total number of twenty-two thousand four hundred and nineteen (22,419) adults including those with hearing and visual impairment in basic and post literacy programmes and a total number of seventeen thousand seven hundred and fourteen (17,714) adult learners completed basic and post literacy programmes in all 14 regions.
Also a total number of five thousand three hundred and forty-eight (5,348) parents and caregivers of Grade 1 learners were equipped with knowledge and skillsto improve literacy and numeracy levels through the Family Literacy Programme (FLP).
10 Honourable Chairperson of the Whole House CommiHee, Honourable Members, coming to the last programme, 8.6 Last but not the least on our programmes, the HIV & AIDS Management Unit (HAMU) is allocated an amount of One million, Nine Hundred and Fifteen Thousand Namibia Dollars (NS1, 915, 000).
Under this programme the Ministry scaled up the coordination of the implementation of Comprehensive Sexuality Education programmes at national and regional levels, with the primary aim of equipping and empowering adolescent youth with the necessary knowledge to make correct and right health decisions.

In addition, the National School Health TaskForce was established as a coordinating structure for integrated school health.
In 2018, the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture with development partners, hosted the National Youth Conference in Swakopmund on Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights, in which 120 adolescents and youth delegated from all 14 region participated.

Honourable members, having shared with you the details of each of our above programme, I present in tabular form the allocations per programme for the 2019/2020 - 2021/22 Medium Term Expenditure Framework.
I will not read the allocations/figures, as I have already indicated the summary allocations per program.
11 N$'OOO Policy Coordination Services and Support 205,886 246,698 256,118 Pre-primary Education 466,975 393,713 405,853 Primary Education 8,435,444 8,908,148 8,803,833 Secondary Education 4,148,641 3,685,909 3,771,344 Information, and Learning, Arts and Culture Adult Lifelong 508,836 571,800 586,218 HIVjAIDS Management 1,915 1,978 2,043 Honourable Chairperson of the Whole House Committee, Honourable Members, 9.
Allow me to elaborate on some of the challenges experienced by the Ministry in the 2018/19 financial year's budget execution: 9.1 The provision of physical education facilities particularly, additional class rooms and new schools remain a challenge for various reasons.

The regular maintenance or upkeep of existing infrastructure still compounds our education business.
9.2 The high staff turnover due to death, resignations, retirements and various other reasons continue to exert a worrisome burden on the Ministry's payroll, as a result of payment of staff benefits.

12 9.3 The implementation of the NSSCOcurriculum has brought about costs for additional needs for more infrastructure development such as additional classrooms, hostel accommodation, laboratories, workshops, equipment for pre-vocational/technical subjects as well as renovation of existing structures.
All the curriculum development activities such as syllabus development, development of curriculum support materials including textbooks, evaluation of curriculum support materials, induction of teachers, education officers and school principals, printing, production and distribution of syllabuses and other curriculum materials, needed substantive funding.
9.4 As much as the Government is committed to provide fee-free Basic Education, funding to schools as functionally well-equipped units of service delivery is declining and necessitates call for support from stakeholders.

9.5 The Ministry continues to experience challenges with the management capacity, accountability and efficiency at school level which has been deflating the quality education delivery.
In response to this challenge the Ministry is committed to strengthen social accountability through intensified School Board training and encouraging community participation while providing continuous professional development opportunities for inspectors of education, school principals and teachers.

Honourable Chairperson of the Whole House Committee, Honourable Members, regarding the Ministerial priorities for 2019·2020 Financial Year, 10.
The Ministry will continue to work with Cambridge Assessment International Education and local educators to finalise the development and approval 13 of all thirty-one (31) Advanced Subsidiary syllabuses, including the development of curriculum compliant learning support materials for implementation in grade 12 in 2021.

11.

The integration of ICTin teaching and learning remains critical.
Within limited resources, the Ministry will continue to capacitate its teaching staff through targeted workshop using the UNESCO ICT Framework for Teaching and Learning, digital citizenship, and other online courses aimed at upgrading the ICT skills,and the use of available ICT devices.

12.The year 2019 also marks the first year of the senior secondary revised curriculum with the introduction of the first year of NSSC-O at Grade 10.
In 2020 the Ministry will implement the second year of the senior secondary at Grade 11 which will be the first co-hort to write the NSSC-Ointroduced under the revised curriculum.

From these learners the first group of learners who wish to take up subjects at Advanced Subsidiary level may proceed to do so.

The learners who opt not to proceed with AS levels are expected to apply to institutions of higher learning, including Vocational Technical Institutions (VTC's).

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The Ministry remains committed to expand access libraries, information and archive services through ICT and digitization.

Honourable Chairperson of this August House Honourable Members, J4.

It is worth mentioning that the allocation for 20 J 9/2020 Financial Year fully covers personnel expenditures and the Universal Grants to schools.
However major cost drivers of the Ministry; such as Government School 14 Hostel food provision, Namibia School Feeding Programmes, Utilities, Stationery and Cleaning Materials are funded only 50%.

These are all critical and essential enablers and prerequisites for quality education provision and attainment.
It is for this very reason why it should not be deemed pre-mature for this Ministry to request to be considered for additional budgetary allocation during the Mid-year Budget Review to ensure continuity of its key operations.

15.1 would like to conclude by sincerely thanking all our stakeholders and development partners for their continuous support and involvement through the Friends of Education Special Initiative (FENSI),and other means and avenues.
I further would like to plea for more support during this new financial year.

With these few words Honourable Chairperson and Honourable Members, I ask for your support and approval of Vote 10.

I thank you, 15