Namibian boys' underachievement and under-participation in education

The main purpose of the Namibian boys’ underachievement in education research project was to find out what accounted for the disparity in academic performance between male and female learners/students and what its educational and social-economic implications were. In addition, the study sought to explore factors which influenced Namibian male learners’/students’ underachievement and under-participation in education. Using a pragmatic parallel mixed methods research design, systematic, criterion and case study sampling techniques, we collected data from all 14 Educational Regions of Namibia by administering structured questionnaires to 4659 secondary school learners, 528 secondary school teachers, 182 parents, 122 University lecturers and 807 University and Vocational Training Centre (VTC) students. When collecting qualitative data, we conducted focus group discussions with sampled secondary school learners, secondary school teachers, parents and University students. From document analysis, we ascertained that at the secondary school level, challenges of some boys’ low survival rates, low promotion rates from grade to grade, high failure rates, high school leaving rates, and high dropout rates negatively affected their academic achievement and academic participation in school in all 14 education regions. At the tertiary education level, evidence showed that substantially more female than male students had been enrolled in all public and private Namibian educational institutions for three decades and that in general, during this period, female students had consistently and substantially performed better academically than male students in all tertiary education institutions. In summary, according to sampled learners and sampled teachers, some Namibian boys performed worse than girls because they distracted themselves from school work, withdrew from learning activities, engaged in self-destructive behaviour, believed they could do without education and because they were not interested in education as it was boring to them. In addition, some boys under-participated in education because they dropped out of school, did not take advantage of psychosocial programmes that were organized to promote their participation in education, and did not actively participate in learning activities. All this expressed some boys’ self-imposed exclusion from educational activities organized by schools. According to sampled learners, some boys underachieved in education because they spent less time on academic activities, preferred to work in isolation, were not eager to share academic information, did not care about their academic achievement, and they were less concerned about their future. Furthermore, sampled learners and sampled teachers reported that several parents undermined and sabotaged their sons’ educational achievement during socialization by giving them too much freedom to roam and loiter around aimlessly without restraint while strictly controlling the behaviour and movements of their daughters; allowing their sons to abuse alcohol and drugs, including, in some instances, sharing alcohol with them- alcohol they had easy access to through bars, night clubs, Shebeen outlets and Cuca shops (i.e. small retail shops in rural areas that include the sale of alcohol); not caring about what their sons did and how they spent their time; not giving their sons responsibilities at home to cultivate in them ethics of responsibility, hard work, discipline, commitment, persistence-virtues that promote academic achievement; not being concerned of their sons’ education, welfare, misconduct and misdeeds; and in some regions by criticising, ostracising, ridiculing, shaming and shunning their sons for going to school instead of looking after livestock. Moreover, University lecturers and University and VTC students reported that female students academically performed better than male students who underachieved at tertiary education institutions because they were motivated, worked harder, did not waste time socializing in dysfunctional ways (e.g. abusing alcohol and drugs), participated in learning activities, were collaborative, were willing to learn, were organized, were persistent and they did not easily drop out of universities when faced with difficulties. v We have discussed these and other findings in the rest of the report and made recommendations on how Namibia’s educational policy framework should be reviewed, reoriented, adapted and transformed to cater for the needs of boys who underachieve in education; how schools, teachers, fellow learners, parents, communities, University lecturers, University students and other educational stakeholders should support Namibian boys’ education. At the theoretical level, we have demonstrated how the data from this study could be used at the global, continental, Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional and Namibian national levels to reframe boys’ and girls’ education in a manner that promotes genuine gender parity in education, authentic and balanced social-economic development. We have also proposed that for all this to be implemented, a social cultural and participatory community-based transformation in support of boys’ functional socialization and education should take place in the Namibian society.

Description

Research report on how Namibia’s educational policy framework should be reviewed, reoriented, adapted and transformed to cater for the needs of boys who underachieve in education; how schools, teachers, fellow learners, parents, communities, University lecturers, University students and other educational stakeholders should support Namibian boys’ education.

Keywords

Boys’ underachievement, Secondary school learners, Namibian education, Educational policy, Gender equality, Namibia’s higher education, Perfomance evaluation, Boys' underachievement

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/11070/3727

Collections

Research Articles (DECDLPE)

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