WOMEN IN BUSINESS EDITION
POLITICAL PERSPECTIVEON EDUCATION
8EDUCATION
by Gwen Lister • photograph Shutterstock
THE LATE COLUMNIST CHRIS SMITH USED TO TALK ABOUT THE NEED TO
“CONNECT THE DOTS.” It is what might otherwise be called
‘coordination’: the need to plan for the future and to tackle
problems cohesively, because to do so on a piecemeal, ad hoc basis,
merely wastes money and resources and won’t get us out of the
shambles we’re in.
It breaks my heart, for example, to learn that we need 5 000
teachers. Worse still, that the education ministry is ‘forced’ to
recruit second-rate candidates to fill the gap. This, in a national
environment in which we have made poverty elimination our first
priority, and where there is said to be mass unemployment, is a
travesty and hardly bears thinking about. We simply are not
connecting the dots, and it does not help matters that our national
psyche is messed up either.
I have said it before, but it bears repeating: we have done
skills audits and a plethora of national strategies and action
plans in a variety of areas from education to poverty alleviation
and combating corruption, but we don’t have either a holistic
approach to the challenges we face or harmonise these efforts, and
we clearly don’t have the will or intent to truly implement
solutions and change things.
We talk about ‘wealth creation’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ and other
lofty-sounding expensive ideals and we perpetuate
the thinking among our youth that aspirations to a
material-istic existence is all that really matters. We somehow
fail to recognise or respect the fact that for many of our
compatriots, just to have a job would be an achievement in itself.
A section of our largely urban youth, spoiled and privileged in
their well-remunerated jobs, don’t recognise real poverty: and feel
that because they cannot yet afford the latest cellphone or a
luxury vehicle; cannot regularly eat oysters and drink Moet, that
they are somehow still deprived.
And then there are those who are helped along by political and
other connections or feel they need to steal to get there or hold
out the begging bowl to perpetuate entitlement for those already
advantaged.
Instead of patting ourselves on the back for hosting expen-sive
conferences, talking about poverty, instead of acting to end it,
let us instead ask ourselves (and answer) some tough questions: if
quality education and employment are key to solving poverty, then
why are we not putting all our efforts into these sectors? Why are
we not eulogising the role and impor-tance of the teacher in our
society, rather than encouraging our youth to think of it as a
‘second class’ and worthless career?
Why are we continually putting vocational training on the back
burner when it is exactly those skills which help turn the wheels
of our economy and not the idle lifestyle of the rich
‘en-trepreneurs’ as they travel first-class round the world? Why
are we continually wasting precious resources to keep up
appear-ances to show that we are more than we are, either globally
or at home?
Why do we insist on having anti-poverty or anti-corruption
conferences at luxury hotels when we could hold them in government
or tertiary auditoriums and other facilities and let delegates feed
themselves?
We, (and I use the word deliberately as all of us are - mostly -
complicit) and our President, are a mass of contra-dictions and
mixed messages. On the one hand he gives away 20% of his salary, on
the other he jets freely around the world at great cost. People, in
turn, complain about corrup-tion while eyeing the next tender
opportunity; or live lavish lifestyles but don’t pay their
municipal bills or school fees.
To get back to the basic theme: it is not just about educa-tion
or ‘free’ education for that matter, because that alone will not
solve poverty. It has to be a quality education, and it can only be
delivered by a system and teachers committed to excellence and who
are respected and revered by parents and society at large for their
huge contribution to training good, ethical and productive citizens
who worship the gods
of knowledge rather than wealth and who aspire to making a
difference rather than line their own pockets.
In many ways, we, as a society, choose poverty for a majority of
our people if we don’t level the playing field through widening
access to a decent education; making the linkage between
corruption/mismanagement and failure to implement development
goals; and committing to a serious re-think of our national values
to awaken our national con-science to be better.
If we do this, we could put the pursuit of knowledge and
teachers who dispense it, back where they belong with pride of
place in our society.
Follow Gwen Lister on Twitter: @GwenLister1
Political Perspective from 13 November 2015, reprinted with
permission from The Namibian and Gwen Lister.
www.sisternamibia.org SISTER NAMIBIA
9
• According to the 2014 Namibian Labour Force Survey a total of
343 076 women are employed while 159 563 are unemployed.
• Isabel Perón of Argentina became the first woman President in
the world in 1974.
• Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the president of the Republic of
Liberia and the first elected female Head of State in Africa. She
is currently serving her second term.
• Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila is the first female Prime Minister
of the Republic of Namibia after taking office on 21 March
2015.
• In July 2015, Namibian eye specialist,
Dr Helena Ndume, was awarded the first-ever United Nations (UN)
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize for her work. She has helped to
restore the sight of more than 30 000 Namibians most of them unable
to afford the treatment.
• The first modern electric refrigerator was invented in 1914 by
an American woman named Florence Parpart.
• Disposable diapers were invented by a woman named Marion
Donovan in 1946.
• The first bulletproof vest (Kevlar bulletproof vest) was
invented in 1965 by a woman named Stephanie Kwolek. She was a
DuPont chemist.
The invention came through a mistake as she accidentally
invented it while trying to perfect a lighter fibre for car
tyres.
• The inventor of windshield wipers was a woman named Mary
Anderson. She invented them in 1903 after noticing that the driver
had to stop the tram every few minutes to wipe the snow off his
front window.
• Wangari Maathai, founder of Green Belt Movement was the first
African woman recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her
contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace. She
died from ovarian cancer in 2011.
WOMEN facts
FAST FACTS
It breaks my heart, for example, to learn that we need 5 000
teachers. Worse still, that the education ministry is ‘forced’ to
recruit second-rate candidates to fill the gap.
