The history of education in Namibia ranges from pre-colonial times until independence. It includes the history of education under both German and South African rule, before and after apartheid.
Pre-colonial times Education in pre-colonial Namibia was part of everyday life. Teaching and administering punishment or corrections was the responsibility of every adult. Riddles, poetry, memory tests, songs, dances and games were used to teach the roles and skills of adulthood.
Roles were given according to sex. Fathers would teach skills to their sons and mothers to their daughters. Some skills (such as blacksmithing and pot making) were controlled by certain clans and passed down by apprenticeship within the clan.
Missionary education Missionary schooling was seen positively by local leaders, who saw it as a way to improve trade, technology and defence. Education gave missionaries an acceptable role within African society and allowed for the spread of missions. Missionaries could also pursue their mission of civilizing and westernizing Africans. Blacks who joined mission stations were expected to become employees and artisans, and training in practical and domestic skills was thus introduced.
German rule
Black education Blacks in German South West Africa began to see education as an important boon in their struggle to regain their lands. However, many white settlers saw any education of blacks as a threat to colonisation in Namibia. It was also not in their interest to employ educated laborers or to have to compete with skilled blacks.
Pressure from liberals and socialists led to the German government voting in funds for the education of blacks, but most of it wasn't actually spent. In 1912 there were only around 5 500 blacks in school.
White education German settlers were provided with state schools. The goal was to assure the maintenance of German culture. However only 21% of school-aged white children were in school at the time South Africa took over.
South African rule before Apartheid
Black education At a 1923 meeting with all missions except the Finnish, the South African government imposed a normal course of schooling lasting two to four years. Reading, writing, arithmetic, religion and singing were to be taught in the vernacular.
In 1924 there were almost 4700 pupils in northern Namibia. During the same decade, the first boarding schools of Namibia opened.
Africans wished for assimilative education in a European language, as it was seen as a way to obtain better wages, equality and power. However, by the 1930s, the South African administration had become apprehensive of missionary education and wished to control it. It was believed that education would introduce Africans to world movements and thinking such as democracy and human rights. The administration notably disliked the 'bush school' movement. The Native Commissioner Major Hahn instituted that permission was needed for each new school that opened from 1932 onward. In 1936, he closed 84 out of 164 schools of the Finnish Mission, although most of the closures were not enforced due to weak government presence.
In 1935, the first state school opened after protests due to inadequate education. A 1936 report to the League of Nations criticized the poor standards and lack of facilities of northern Namibia's school, yet the government did not invest further in African education. Only two other schools would be built by the state until 1940, both in the central regions. No schools were built by the state in the north between 1940 and 1960. There were attempts by Namibians to build independent schools to bypass racist education, but those lacked funding.
Between 1935 and 1956 seven state schools were opened in Herero reserves, likely because of pressure from the League of Nations coupled with the fact that the German missions were too poor to take this responsibility. Education was otherwise still provided by missionaries.
In 1945 there were around 19 100 students in Namibia. There was still no secondary education and almost no education for the higher primary grades. Education was still mainly focused on practical and religious education, and did not teach agriculture – sparking criticisms from Africans.
Coloured education South Africa instated a separate education system for coloured people. The goal was to have semi-skilled manual workers for the white-controlled economy. They were not prevented from studying beyond standard 2, unlike black students, and their syllabus was similar to whites'. However they barely had more resources than the blacks.
White education Soon after taking power, South Africa made education compulsory for white children aged 7 to 17. It eventually started inserting the Cape Syllabus modeled after the British system. Whites could obtain primary and secondary education in Namibia but had to go to South Africa for vocational education, teacher training or university.
In the late 1920s, white students received over ten times more funds than African students, despite Europeans being outnumbered seven to one by blacks in Namibia, meaning whites education was 4,50 pounds per student and black education only 0,04 pounds per student.
German was discouraged as language of education to avoid German settlers seeking to collaborate with Germany for a return to German rule. Afrikaans and English were thus used in most state schools. As a result, most German children were sent to private German schools, which were subsidized by the government for a time. By the 1950s German was accepted in school as the government attempted to unite the settlers.
South African rule during Apartheid Education in apartheid Namibia could be seen as a continuation of South Africa's policy of "separate development". Schools were segregated by race on the territory of Namibia. Different legislation existed to govern the education of different races. The homelands were responsible for education on their territory.
Education was still segregated by 1986, even after petty apartheid laws were relaxed. Education was not compulsory or free for black Namibians, unlike for whites and coloureds.
Black education From 1955 onward, something amounting to the Bantu Education Act was gradually put in place in the Namibian education system before being officially put in place in 1970. The South African government reasoned that South Africa would need literate blacks for its industrial economy, but that their education had to be limited so that they remain subordinate. According to the Eiselen Commission, Africans thus had to be given a four-year primary education teaching them basic knowledge of English and Afrikaans and creating an interest in tribal heritage, agriculture, religion and hygiene. Unlike with the missionaries, they were not to be "civilized" and westernized. With the introduction of Bantu Education, the quality of education lowered. +Various figures for coloureds' and blacks' educationYearNumber of schoolsNumber of teachersNumber of pupilsTotal populationPupil- teacher ratio1960313131043 624452 54033,31966415207178 295514 10037,819705262713112 006671 60141,319735923453138 890735 00040,2 The Education Ordinance of 1962 gave Dr Van Zyl the power to enact the plans of the 1958 Van Zyl Commission. These included the implementation of the Bantu education syllabus, the transfer of education from church schools to the state, the production of staff for the lower echelons of government, the spread of the ideology of 'separate development' and the creation of a separate education department for Africans. The number of blacks with a four-year primary education was to be increased, but they were to be severely restricted in their access to further education. Africans had to accept their status in society and live a modest lifestyle.
Around the 1970s, the South African government took measures to replicate the South African education system in Namibia. They installed different syllabuses for different races, different wage scales, career structures and qualifications for teachers, separate policies for the admission to and continuation of schools, the creation of a public school network and the use of mother tongue instruction for all primary schools until the fifth year (after which it was in Afrikaans).
To ensure the policy of the state would be enforced, the South African administration forbid unregistered schools for Africans through the Bantu Education Act and financial incentives. The state also stopped granting new sites to mission schools and removed subsidies from mission schools in an attempt to reduce mission education, as it had indeed had full responsibility of African education until the mid-1960s. Thus the number of missionary schools fell from 244 in 1960 to 36 in 1973, and in the late 1970s around 95% of the schools were in the government's control.
Transnational mining companies supported black education to maintain a positive image and to maintain their mining operations after Namibia's eventual independence, creating educational establishments and foundations for blacks and coloureds. They particularly supported higher education that could produce managers and skilled workers. In the mid-1970s, worker discontent at the lack of promotion opportunities and a lack of skilled white workers also led companies to focus on training black workers. This training in large parts created semi-skilled employees.
Education was seen as a way to escape poverty for black Namibians. The north of Namibia had become progressively less able to support its own population, and waged jobs that increasingly required an education were seen as a solution. Some blacks managed to reach skilled and management trainee positions in transnational companies, to become members of the Boards of Director of local companies or members of the administration of Namibia's bantustans. However most blacks could still not access such positions due to their lack of quality education.
A South African department of Bantu Education was initially responsible for black education in Namibia, only to be replaced by a department of National Education. The latter in reality did not have the power to impose policy on any ethnic education department. The umbrella organisations National Examination Board and the National Education Council were created in 1980, but four years later were still powerless and ineffective.
The transfer of education from the churches to the state allowed for a rapid increase in enrollments thanks to the state's greater resources. Most black children went to school in 1984, if only for a few months. However this caused classes to be overpopulated due to the lack of classrooms; the average in 1980 was 37 students per class, and lower grades could be double that size. Most students did not stay four to six years in school, notably because of hunger, because they instead worked or because their parents lacked resources. Basic literacy was thus not achieved. At best two-thirds of school leavers in 1981 were functionally literate. Relatively few students studied in a level over lower primary school, with Namibia performing significantly below comparable African countries in this metric. There were however efforts to expand training in and out of school in the early 1980s.
The syllabus was practically the same as the Bantu Education in South Africa by 1967. The focus of primary education was on manual skills, followed by natural science, biblical knowledge, history and geography. Mathematics is of secondary importance. Harsh discipline and rote learning were used in most Namibian schools.Schools lacked equipment for work or play, but books were provided free of charge for all races.
English schools for Africans were suppressed by the South African government, restricting communications with other African countries.