Planning Technical and Vocational Education and Training: the case of Namibia

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1 The Vocational Aspect of Education ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: Planning Technical and Vocational Education and Training: the case of Namibia John Turner To cite this article: John Turner (1993) Planning Technical and Vocational Education and Training: the case of Namibia, The Vocational Aspect of Education, 45:3, , DOI: / To link to this article: Published online: 11 Aug Submit your article to this journal Article views: 206 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at Download by: [ ] Date: 30 January 2016, At: 10:45

2 The Vocational Aspect of Education, Vol. 45, No. 3, 1993 Planning Technical and Vocational Education and Training: the case of Namibia [1] JOHN TURNER School of Education, University of Manchester, United Kingdom ABSTRACT In 1991, shortly after independence, the government of Namibia established a Presidential Commission on Higher Education. The Commission's report contains almost 200 recommendations covering the whole field of post-school education. The account presented here concentrates on technical and vocational education, access to higher education and inter-relationships between the various levels of the educational system. Technical and vocational education at the time of independence was fragmented, inappropriate in a number of ways and not well supported. Fundamental change was necessary. Solutions need to be found around a set of baste principles, including: the need for a coherent system of linked qualifications, the importance of a national training policy enunciated by government, strategies which are responsive to employment requirements and which meet the needs of disadvantaged groups, special access routes for students who have missed out on educational opportunities, adequate provision for pre-service and in-service instructor training and teacher education. The debate about the place of vocational studies In education in developing countries has continued for many years. In colonial times two priorities were clearly understood and frequently stated. The first was that the education provided at all levels in African countries should be closely related to the needs of the community with a curriculum suitable for the majority of children who lived in a rural environment. The second was that technical education was an essential part of the educational system so that a suitable supply of indigenous mechanics might be provided to ensure the development of the country. The 1922 Phelps- Stokes Commission Report, for example, stated: "Every school system should include at least one school with a department of technical or industrial education giving specialised training, so that pupils who attend 285

3 JOHN TURNER it may become vocational teachers or mechanics in the industrial activities of the colony". The 1925 British government report on Education Policy in British Tropical Africa spoke of the importance of "technical and industrial training (especially mechanical training with power driven machinery)", which it believed could "best be given in government workshops provided that an instructor for apprentices is appointed to devote his entire time to them; or in special and instructional workshops on a production basis". It added that "apprentices and learners" in vocations other than industrial should be attached to every government department, e.g. medical, agricultural, forestry, veterinary, survey, post-office, telegraphy: "It should be the aim of the educational system to instil into pupils the view that vocational careers are no less honourable than clerical, and of governments to make them at least as attractive - and thus to counteract the tendency to look down on manual labour". There is hardly a report published during colonial times which did not emphasise in this way the need for technical education, education adapted to the environment, and adult and community education. The commonly held view that the colonial governments only wished to produce clerks, and insisted on a syllabus copied directly from British schools is a gross distortion of the evidence. Indeed a number of technical institutes were started but these failed to commend themselves to the community and most of them were subsequently obliged to close. Perhaps the most notable example of such an institute which continued into the years of independence was the Yaba Technical Institute in Lagos, Nigeria which itself subsequently formed one of the foundations of the University of Lagos. What went wrong? How is it that the clear sighted views of those responsible for the educational systems of British Colonial Africa were unable to translate their clear vision of what was required into effect? The answer is not hard to find. The overwhelming desire of the political leaders of the time was for independence. These leaders believed that the first requirement of independence was to demonstrate to the colonial power that the citizens of the colonies were at least as able as their colonial rulers; this implied the necessity of succeeding on a syllabus and curriculum as nearly as possibly identical with that of the metropolitan country. As the Phelps-Stokes report indicated, any adaptation of the curriculum was regarded as "the entering wedge of educational segregation", and therefore, to be inimical to the struggle for independence. If the colonial rulers of the country had gained their positions by a predominantly literary education then it was a similar education which must be pursued in the fight for equality. Technical education was therefore often viewed, not only by politicians but by parents, as an attempt to exploit the people by denying them the form of education which would enable them to compete with their foreign rulers. 286

4 THE CASE OF NAMIBIA Politically the decision was astute and eventually led to success in the independence struggle. The consequences of it, however, were unfortunate for the countries after they had gained independence. Even at the present time a technical education is regarded as a very poor second to a more traditional and 'bookish' education. This attitude is, of course, equally common within the metropolitan countries. Places in engineering and allied subjects are still difficult to fill, for example in the higher institutions of Great Britain, with unhappy effects for the economy. Every country in sub-saharan Africa is desperately short of technicians and technologists. The Republic of Namibia became independent on 21 March On 25 March the present author arrived in Namibia to undertake a preliminary study of the educational system and its needs. The study discovered serious deficits in all aspects of education in that country and not least in technical and vocational education. Moreover, the possibility of substantial improvement seemed slight since there was an almost complete lack of Namibian teachers of technical and vocational subjects. This finding was not unexpected. Namibia had just emerged from a long period of armed struggle for liberation, during which black education had suffered very severely at all levels. Moreover, the country had been ruled in accordance with the principles of Apartheid imposed on the country by its South African colonial masters. As in South Africa there was a great discrepancy between the provision made for white education and for black education, which itself was divided amongst nine ethnic administrations, in addition to the administration for whites and the Department of National Education, a total of eleven different educational systems for a total population of under 400,000 pupils/students. Virtually all the technical posts in the country were filled by whites, the majority of whom were not Namibian citizens by birth and virtually all of whom had obtained their technical qualifications in South Africa. In 1991 the government established a Presidential Commission on Higher Education in Namibia under the Chairmanship of the present author, which met in Namibia for five working weeks in two periods in February and April 1991 and held two further sectional meetings before submitting its final report in September The report was a very extensive document which made nearly 200 recommendations covering the whole field of post-school education. This paper is based on the findings of the Commission, which was itself able to draw on a large number of written and oral submissions and on two major reports; one carried out under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme and the other by Mats Hultin-Craelius, working under the auspices of the Swedish International Development Authority. The Higher Education Commission attempted to look at technical and vocational education across the whole field of occupations including education and training in mining, industry, engineering, 287

5 JOHN TURNER agriculture, fisheries, construction, commerce, financial services, transport, communications, hotel and catering, applied arts, etc. One of the features of the many public hearings held by the Commission throughout the country, as well as in Windhoek, was the importance attached to technical and vocational education by the citizens who came to the hearings. The most common request that was made was that provision should be made for accessible technical training. There seemed to be a general agreement that this type of education was the most likely to result in paid and useful employment, and was even more important, in terms of developing the community, than academic education. The written submissions also stressed the importance of vocational education predominantly from the perspective of employers. All pf them were agreed that the former method of vocational preparation based on the South African system should be abolished, and that a new system should be established which would be more simple, practical and applied. It was also a general view that this could only be effective if a single ministry were given the portfolio of technical and vocational education, instead of the three which at the time were responsible for the provision and maintenance of public occupational training institutions. These were the Ministry of Education and Culture, which was responsible for the school system which included practical subjects and pre-vocational courses at secondary level; it also ran the technical institutes and the higher education institution called the Academy, which included a so-called Technikon and a Centre for Out-of-school Training which also undertook technical and vocational courses. The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development was responsible for agricultural colleges and an in-service training centre for water engineering trades. The Ministry of Health was responsible for enrolled nurse training programmes in hospital nursing schools and post-nursing training, in partnership with the Academy. The Ministry of Labour and Manpower Development did not run any training institutions, but monitored skill requirements in the economy and regulated apprenticeship training and employment and a system of national certificates offered both by colleges and by industry. This Ministry also ran the system of trade tests to which the apprenticeships led, but which could be taken by non-apprentices who had at least four years experience in a designated trade. A review of the technical education system at the time of independence showed that it was fragmented and inadequate. At school level such technical subjects as existed in black schools were taught inadequately and mostly theoretically. Seven white schools combined academic and technical courses which were given in well-equipped laboratories. The present government was eager to introduce more technical education into schools and was proposing that at the junior secondary level the pupils must choose two subjects from a list of

6 THE CASE OF NAMIBIA "technological and economic pre-vocational skills" subjects, which together would occupy 20% of the weekly school timetable. At senior secondary school level also, where the Cape Senior Certificate Examination was to be replaced by the IGCSE, there would be the possibility of studying technical subjects. Many curriculum specialists believe that the satisfactory teaching of technical subjects in secondary schools is extremely difficult, partly because of the cost of suitable equipment and workshops, and partly because of the difficulty of finding suitably qualified teachers. Both these factors operate in Namibia, but the second poses problems which seem at present to be insuperable. The training of secondary teachers of technical subjects hardly exists, and to produce teachers in the numbers required must be regarded as a difficult and long-term enterprise. At Technical Institute level there was a complete lack of provision. At the time of independence there were only four small technical institutes in the country, all of these in the Northern Region of the country, one of which was not fully developed. The total enrolment was less than 350. Yet it was this training which was most often urged on the Commission by the communities visited as a priority for educational development. At college level there was the College of Out-of-school Training, which was run as a part of the Academy. This college accepted students at standard 7 or 8 (grades 9 or 10) for one-year full-time integrated courses in auto-mechanics, civil, mechanical and electrical engineering and at a lower level in commerce and hair care, which together enrolled 340 students. The Technikon branch of the Academy also offered career oriented part time and full time education in a variety of courses at the national certificate (grade 10 entry) and national diploma (grade 12 entry) levels in management, administration, commerce, cost accounting, secretarial and also in nature conservation and agriculture. The total enrolment of the Technikon was 425. Apart from agricultural training and nursing schools and colleges, with which we shall not deal in detail in this paper, this completes the stock of training facilities available to the country at the time of independence. There was also the Von Bach Vocational Training Centre, run by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development, which was mainly intended to provide in-service training for the Ministry's Water Department. In addition to training provided by the government the private sector also provided a good deal of in-service training for its own employees. This training was appropriate for the required tasks and was on the whole' given by well trained specialists in good workshop conditions, mainly concentrated on operative, semi-skilled, skilled (artisan) and junior cadre technical staff, on the one hand, and supervisory and management courses on the other. The main providers 289

7 JOHN TURNER were the mining companies, Rossing Uranium, Tsumeb Corporation and CDF; between them these training facilities had a capacity of about 150 trainees, though they were not working at full capacity. One major initiative was provided by Rossing Uranium in the establishment of the Namibian Institute of Technology, a national school of mining technology to train Namibians in skills related to the mining industry. This was intended to be an independence gift to Namibia, for which 6 million rand had been assigned by the company. The project was planned in three phases and the Rossing donation was intended to cover phase one. After all three phases had been completed 90 residential trainees would be enrolled on courses at several levels up to instructor level. Another private sector initiative was the Namibian Training Liaison Council which had been formed by individuals from some of Namibia's largest companies following discussions on training needs with government departments and the Academy in The Council had obtained finance from industry and commerce for one-year certificate and three-year diploma courses in information technology at the Technikon. In 1990 and 1991, 21 students were admitted to the first year and 12 continued to the second year of these courses. Specialist training was provided at the Maritime Training Centre at Luderitz run by the Rossing Foundation Uranium Mine, with financial sponsorship and managerial and technical support from the Fisheries company. Account should be taken also of two para-statals SWAWEK and TransNamib, who train their own workforce, and of a number of non-government organisations of which the most important were the Rossing Foundation, which was sponsored by Rossing Uranium Mine and operated a widespread training programme and the Vocational Training Centre in Khomasdal, funded by the Otto Benecke Foundation, which had extremely good accommodation and equipment and was able to take 120 residential trainees and 80 day students. Even after taking into account all these sources of training, it was clear that the needs of the economy were in no way being met by the existing provision. The situation was complicated by two additional factors. In the first place, many technical posts in the mining area were filled by white foreigners who had been imported to do specialist work. Many of these were seeking, or had just obtained, Namibian citizenship and effectively closed promotion routes to black Namibians. Secondly, the large number of Namibians trained in Eastern Europe were finding it difficult to receive adequate recognition for their training. This seemed to be at least in part because their training had been excessively theoretical and they had not had experience of practical work in Namibian conditions. Consequently, they were unacceptable to employers, often small-scale industries which depended heavily on the technical skills of 290

8 THE CASE OF NAMIBIA the workforce. Steps were already being taken to provide crash courses in practical skills for these potentially valuable employees. Another problem compounded the difficulty. The few technical institutes and colleges which already existed were not operating at full capacity because of the difficulty of securing a sufficient number of qualified school-leavers. Indeed the flow of school-leavers, at both junior and senior secondary levels, was, and remains, a major constraint on the development of the post-secondary educational system. In particular, the supply of pupils with passes in English, mathematics and science created a major problem. The conditions in the institutes themselves also gave cause for concern. Salaries were low, and it was therefore difficult to attract adequately qualified and experienced specialist teachers. This together with the poor quality students whom they were able to attract led to a heavy drop out rate, the under-utilisation of the facilities of the institution and a spiralling esteem amongst parents, students and employers. The Commission's review of existing technical training, therefore, showed the need for fundamental change. Training at craft (full certificate) level needed to be rationalised in relation to the demand and the geographic distribution of institutions. The range of diploma level training at the Technikon was limited and there was a complete absence of full Technician level training in the engineering disciplines. Teacher education and instructor training for the technical and vocational institutions and industry-based training centres did not exist. On the other hand, the importance of sound technical training was widely understood by parents, by government and by industry and there was a strong will and motivation to improve the situation. The technical institutes being under used represented a capacity for further growth without large-scale expenditure. In addressing the problem the Commission proposed the following principles: 1. A national system of occupationally-related training is required, guided by a national training policy enunciated by the government. 2. A wide range of appropriate training aimed at helping people improve their economic status and living conditions should be made. increasingly available to the majority of Namibians who are not in waged employment, in both rural and urban areas. 3. The national system should provide within Namibia for the greater part of the skill requirements of the formal sector of the economy. 4. In assessing national training requirements, due consideration must be given to the need to remedy past distortions in training provision and access to employment based on ethnic discrimination. 5. The training needs of women must be specifically addressed. 291

9 JOHN TURNER 6. Occupationally-related training should be provided in the national system through a network of public, para-statal, private sector, NGO and community sponsored institutions, centres and programmes, working as far as possible in a co-ordinated, co-operative and cost-effective way. 7. Co-ordination and training effectiveness should be fostered through appropriate consultative mechanisms at all levels of the national training system. 8. A coherent, linked sequence of qualifications should be established in each programme area, from basic skill level to advanced sub-professional level which commands the confidence of trainees, training providers and employers, which is comparable at key points to internationally known and recognised qualifications, and which enables competent and hard working Namibians to progress efficiently to their highest level of capability. 9. Suitable access and bridging courses, and support within training programmes, should be provided so that capable Namibians whose formal schooling is deficient are given the opportunity to enter appropriate programmes and progress through the training system. 10. The distinct training needs of particularly disadvantaged groups in the society, such as the disabled, and the returnees, must be given priority attention. 11. In the immediate future, priority in public investment must be given to the rehabilitation, rationalisation and cost-effective development of existing institutions, especially for access programmes, semi-skilled and certificate-level training. Only inescapable new development should be undertaken in the short-term, until the existing institutions have been brought up to an acceptable standard. 12. For the medium and long-term, public investment (on its own or in partnership with other sponsors) should be undertaken according to a national planning procedure which takes into account the nature of regional and local demand for skills training. 13. The provision of adequate in-service teacher education and instructor training for the technical and vocational education system must be given immediate attention. Members of the Commission believed that their recommendations relating to vocational and technical education should be entirely consistent with their approach to other parts of the higher education field. Indeed, the governing principle of their work was that "higher education should be governed by a comprehensive policy which is responsive to national development goals, educational needs and employment requirements". It was believed that a system should be developed which was responsive to needs rather than governed by tradition, and was governed more by the ability of the learner to 292

10 THE CASE OF NAMIBIA undertake work successfully at different levels rather than by the paper qualifications which the learner may have. It was also regarded as important that the barriers between full-time and part-time study should be eroded, so that students might be able to undertake some of their work by part-time study, and perhaps in some cases by distance education, returning when circumstances permitted to undertake full-time study or to complete their work in the part-time mode. It was particularly important that students should not waste time by having to repeat work which they had already mastered because of a lack of complete congruence between their previous studies and the work which they subsequently intended to pursue. The Commission, therefore, proposed a simple ladder of progression from certificate to diploma to degree in all subjects, based on the proposed three-year junior secondary school structure, followed by two-year IGCSE courses. When students had finished their basic education programme at grade 10, they would take the national basic education certificate examination. Those successful could then go either to a senior secondary school course, leading to the IGCSE after two years (grade 12) or to a specialist college (such as a teachers' college, technical college, agricultural college) for a course leading to a certificate after two or three years of study. After completing the certificate successfully, either an IGCSE or a specialist certificate, students could apply either straight from school or after a period in employment for entry to a diploma programme or to a university undergraduate programme leading to a first degree. Diploma programmes would be specialised and would be run in specialist colleges, the polytechnic or the university. They would last for two or three years. Most undergraduate programmes would last for four years, and would be divided into part one and part two, each of two years' duration. Those students who had completed part one but did not proceed to part two would be awarded a university diploma. Any student who completed a diploma programme, either in a specialist college or at the university, and who then entered employment could subsequently apply to return to university to complete the degree programme in two or three years. Under normal circumstances students would move from a certificate to a diploma and to a degree in the same area of study. If, however, it was clear that the student had the required knowledge and skills to transfer to a cognate area he or she would be permitted to do so. Such flexibility, which was regarded as an important attribute of the system, would be possible if the equality of standard at the various levels could be safeguarded across the different institutions. A suitable machinery was proposed to ensure this. As already indicated, it was also regarded as important by the Commission that a full range of part-time and distance education provision should be made available so that periods of full-time and part-time study could be part of a single programme. 293

11 JOHN TURNER The technical and vocational courses, about which recommendation were made, would therefore fit into this general overall pattern. Students who had taken a certificate at a technical institute might, for example, proceed to a diploma at the polytechnic and subsequently to a degree programme at the university. The programme might be done in six years or could be spread over a person's entire career. Another area common to all aspects of higher education was the need to develop special access routes for students who had been denied access to the normal educational structures. In addition to normal drop-outs and people who were not within easy reach of schools a very large number of returnees would benefit by special access provision. In terms of the technical programme, this would lead to the following route. The trade certificate teaching currently being undertaken at the vocational training centre in Khomasdal should lead trainees directly to work as semi-skilled artisans with a recognised certificate which would give an appropriate wage or should lead to a third year of training, self-employment or a trade test. Success in any of these programmes would lead as would a junior certificate examination, into entry on the full craft or trade certificate programme, which would have an annual test with its own level of achievement and potential for entry into the job market. Completion of all three years, however, would lead to the award of the National Technical Certificate. This in turn would be an entry qualification for the National Technical Diploma, which would be open also to IGCSE holders who had passed in appropriate subjects. The level of award would correspond to the first part of a proposed B.Tech degree of the university and would lead into part two of the degree. The Commission believed that there was a substantial pool of Namibians who had never had an opportunity of preparing themselves for university entry, and included those who had: Passed senior certificate but not at a sufficient level or in the right subjects to achieve matriculation exemption. Completed a full secondary education but have either not taken the examination or not passed, as a consequence of poor schooling, or difficult home conditions, or the effects of war, rather than of low aptitude. Achieved a post-junior secondary qualification and several years experience in work. Returned from exile with qualifications which are not recognised in Namibia or which are at an insufficient level for them to enter a normal university course. In addition there are returning exiles who have already taken degrees, or parts of degrees, which are not recognised in Namibia and do not qualify them for employment. 294

12 THE CASE OF NAMIBIA The Commission made detailed proposals for at least two special access courses to be held for such students, each for about 200 students, lasting for periods of up to 18 months. It was recognised that a number of the students on the special programmes would be able to reach completion point in a relatively short time. It may well be that the pool of talent exposed by these courses would demonstrate the existence of sufficient candidates for a series of such courses and for the provision of an access route by part time and distance education. This route would be available, and indeed essential, in the technical and vocational area also if the developments anticipated were to take place in the desired time frame. The Commission made two further recommendations which were central to the whole of its higher education policy, but.which it recognised as being controversial. The first was that all courses leading to the award of formal certificates, diplomas or degrees should be undertaken under the aegis of the Ministry responsible for education and that all public institutions established for teaching such courses should fall under that Ministry for purposes of budgeting and accountability to the National Assembly. That Ministry would also have the task of licensing private and NGO institutions working at this level, which intended to award certificates and other qualifications. Only if this important area of educational development was under the control of a single Ministry did the Commission believe that it would be possible to act with sufficient speed, coherence and uniformity. The scheme for total flexibility in the higher educational system without loss of standards could, it was believed, only be undertaken if a single Ministry were responsible. Nevertheless, the essential roles of the Public Service Commission and of the other relevant Ministries in higher education and training were recognised. They would clearly need to be involved in the planning of the curricula for their future employees. In many cases the Ministries would be the major employers of the output of the training institutions. They would also be responsible for the continued in-service training of their employees throughout their careers. The Commission was very clear in expressing the intention that all training institutions, including the university and the polytechnic, should consult widely with client groups in the planning and conduct of their courses of study. Secondly, in order to ensure that the best possible advice in the development of higher education was available to government, and to create a sense of ownership and responsibility for the system on the part of all the sectors of Namibian society, the Commission proposed the creation of a National Council for Higher Education which would have the responsibility of planning and monitoring higher education in all aspects. This Council would have a number of responsibilities, including advising on the strategic requirements of the system of higher education, recommending priorities, advising on budgetary procedures and 295

13 JOHN TURNER monitoring the progress of the system, including those students sent overseas for the purpose of higher education. Amongst the specialist groups, which in turn would bring their experience and values to bear on the work of the National Council, it was recommended that a co-ordinating Committee on Technical and Vocational Education should be set up which would be the principal organ of consultation and advice on national occupational training policy. As well as advising the National Council for Higher Education on post-secondary level issues, it would also have the power to advise the government directly through the Ministry of Education and Culture on training at other levels. It was hoped that in this way the full authority of the employing ministries and private sector organisations would be brought to bear on the planning and monitoring of vocational and technical education at all levels. To complete this brief account of the views of the Presidential Commission on Higher Education in Namibia as they relate to vocational and technical education it is necessary to describe very briefly the recommendations of the Commission relating to the university and the polytechnic. The University of Namibia was intended to be a university institution which would be in succession to the university which had been a part of the former Academy, but would have a different ethos and curriculum. The four-year undergraduate programme in two parts has already been described. It was proposed that faculties of arts, science, social and economic studies, education, medical and health sciences and agriculture should be developed. It believed, however, that it would be premature to establish faculties of engineering or of mining, as well as of medicine and veterinary sciences. Though national developments needs required the production of specialists in these areas, the numbers required and the unit cost of training small numbers made it impossible to establish these faculties at an early stage. It was recommended, however, that serious attention should be given to mounting pre-engineering (including pre-mining and metallurgical) studies in the Faculty of Science, in co-operation with the polytechnic and other technical institutions. It was recommended that professional advice should be sought on whether this preparatory programme should be at part 1 (diploma) level or a full first degree programme. Many members of the public whom the Commission consulted indicated that they thought that a bachelor of technology degree programme should be mounted in the Faculty of Science, whose products would either work directly in industry or proceed to either engineering or mining studies elsewhere. It was also recommended that the Technikon, which was formally also a part of the Academy, should be converted into a polytechnic. At least initially, the polytechnic would not offer full degree programmes but would work up to diploma level. Those students who then wished to proceed to full degrees would do so by transferring to the university in the way already described. As far as the polytechnic is concerned, its 296

14 THE CASE OF NAMIBIA partnership with employers was seen to be fundamental to its mode of operation, its main role being to prepare qualified practitioners for careers and in so doing to help fill the needs of the economy and society for highly skilled men and women. It was proposed that there should be a three year diploma programme offered by a number of schools of accounting and information systems, arts and design, hotel and catering, library studies, management and administration, technical education and technical services and it was believed that, like the university, it should offer a wide range of extension programmes. It was intended that the existing technical institutes should become associated with the polytechnic so that a fully coherent and cohesive programme of vocational education and training might be provided, and so that the senior institution may be able to encourage the development of a high level of performance in the institutes. A great deal has had to be omitted in this brief description of the problems of vocational education and training in Namibia and some of the proposals of the Presidential Commission on Higher Education to produce an effective system. It is impossible to hope that finance will be available in the short term to undertake all the work which is necessary to establish the new and upgraded institutions which the Commission believed to be necessary; nor is it likely that the Namibian government, and people to whom the report was submitted, will agree with all the proposals of the Commission. Nevertheless, it is hoped that all will agree that the overview of higher education in Namibia will be a stimulus to the government in encouraging the creation of a single coherent national system of higher education and that it will be of interest to educational planners who are considering reforms in higher education in other developing countries. Correspondence Professor John Turner, School of Education, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom. Note Many direct, indirect and slightly amended quotations from the Report of the Presidential Commission on Higher Education 1992 are included in this paper. The description of the context of the report and other issues relating to vocational educational and training are the responsibility of the author, who was chairman of the Commission, and do not necessarily represent the views of other members of the Commission. 297