By Quinton Chimine
The University of Namibia’s Katima Mulilo Campus has produced 409 graduates for 2023 graduation ceremony.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony held on Thursday, Vice Chancellor of the University of Namibia, Prof. Kenneth Matengu expressed his happiness and reiterated that “University of Namibia is happy to produce 409 graduates, we are not just putting bodies into the systems but we are injecting skills that we expect will change the circumstances’ wherever we go.”
Professor Matengu urged graduate teachers to be productive when applying knowledge to the learners, saying they should stop complaining much about lack of teaching resources “ they must be meaningful, they must have impact, so ask yourself as a Teacher will I just go to work and see learners or will I actually be the one to complain that there are no textbooks, People don’t learn from textbooks they learn by your applications of your syllabus and what you put them should be challenging enough, not questions of how many rivers are in the Zambezi Region? Or which year did David Livingstone pass in Sangwali? Those are not the questions we expect our graduates to ask.”
“However, we expect our graduates to ask questions such as how does decolonization affect policy making in this country? So that they use the medulla.’’ Quashed Prof. Matengu
He however, cautioned graduates to ask themselves what is it that they are going to give reasons to those they will serve. “If you are a teacher, how do we measure that you are a successful teacher? Are you a successful teacher if 6 of 36 students pass? I don’t think so, even us academics we don’t consider ourselves successful if half or more of our class fail. I have same examples I will give you today, Dr. Chataa was my history teacher in grade 11 and 12 while Dr Vincent Matakala was my physics Class Teacher in grade 10 these are the successful people because they produce people who are now leading them. That’s really a measure of success if you can produce people who are better than you’’.
Among the graduates, seventy percent (70 %) are females, whilst the male’s enrolment and performance has showed a decrease as boys (Male Child) they are spending much of their time in consuming drugs and alcohol, and he encouraged the boys to take education serious in order to be successful.
He called everyone to think about the male child “if the boys are not there, our society is not going to function. We are already seeing it in Basic Education where the boy’s under-performance is very high its because of absent fathers, abuse of substance and absence of motivation.”
He further congratulated the graduates and warned them not to take loans at the financial institutions. “They must be principles to save money first. Don’t trap yourself into debts, its very tempting you want to get a GTI car now, invest in your future.” He concluded.
Minister of Higher Education, Technology and Innovation Dr Itah Kandjii-Murangi who also attended the ceremony said investment in human capital is critical to the development and future of any nations. It’s through targeted investments in people that Namibia can produce a productive workforce.
“We need to deliver real outcomes that we reduce poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and prosperity for all. This is the main reason why government of the Republic of Namibia continues to invest in education to build human resources required to contribute to the social economic development”.
Dr Kandjii-Murangi noted that Katima UNAM Campus is fast growing and it has significantly increased and expanded its academic courses offered over the years, and its stable, successfully rolling out over the years by impressive drive to internationalise higher education by extending campuses areas to include neighbouring countries this is done within the confine protocol on education and training.
Higher Education Minister further promised that the UNAM Katima Campus is going into three faculties, three schools and 31 academic programmes. “I’m reliable informed that this intense to offer programmes in Animal Health, Pathology and Suitable Tourism Management in near future’’.
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