ETSIP Gets Mixed Progress Review

Catherine Sasman

18 May 2011

The mid-term technical review of the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP) currently underway in Windhoek has presented a mixed bag of progress and bottlenecks, education experts acknowledged.

But the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Education, Alfred Ilukena, gave an overall positive rating of the implementation of the 15-year strategic plan upon which much of the sector’s improvement is pegged.

Ilukena said while there has been a lot of “back and forth” on activities, the challenge remains for the sector to remain disciplined to stick to its planned activities.

A World Bank consultant attached to the programme since 2005, Yves Tencalla, said although implementation began with a real burst of activities, things started to slow down over the years.

A personal assessment, said Tencalla, was that the education ministry in general lacked “real strategic thinking”.

In a frank assessment of the last five years since the implementation of ETSIP, he said the ministry had not made priority choices on programmatic items.

He blamed the slowdown on a “weak accountability culture” within the ministry, insufficient budget allocations and delays in some areas.

Tencalla further commented that ETSIP funds have “very frequently” been used as “slush funds”, thus covering costs of accelerated programmes while taking away funding to those lagging behind.

He was, however, quick to dispel the myth within the ministry and among some donors that not much has been done since the adoption of ETSIP.

ETSIP has received a yearly allocation of N$220 million per year over the last five years.

This accounts for two per cent of the ministry’s total budget, jointly financed by Government and a consortium of international donors.

Additional costs associated with the implementation of the first phase of ETSIP were reported to amount to an estimated N$2,4 billion.

The review showed that a number of important policies, curriculum development, teachers’ training, commissioned studies, as well as the development of teaching materials have been completed.

Tencalla noted, however, that much of the policies developed have certain flaws, that the sector still lacks sufficient and sufficiently skilled staff, and that the programme is still dogged by financial constraints.

He said there is currently “no possibility” to evaluate the effectiveness of teacher training and learning outcomes at particularly primary education.

“I think there is a system that is trying to improve, but it has no mechanism whatsoever to assess the impact of teaching and learning outcomes,” commented Tencalla.

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