Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates Ceremonies:10-15November 2011

Degrees, diplomas and certificates ceremonies:10-15November 2011

Address to the graduands, guests and staff of North-West University (Ongwediva and Windhoek, Namibia)

Education, life-long learning, and the partnership state in Africa.

Prof RJ Balfour, 2013

Welcomeand acknowledgements

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, I am Professor Robert Balfour and on behalf of the Rector, Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, and the Vice Chancellor of the North-West University, Dr Theuns Dloff, I am delighted to convey both our congratulations to the graduandi present today, and also our appreciation to the families and loved ones honoured here as guests of the University and our students.While this is a formal occasion in which we honour the achievement of graduating students, please feel most welcome to celebrate the occasion and the graduates as they cross the stage. We would be grateful if graduates and guests do not leave the hall until the last student has had the opportunity to cross the stage as a gesture of respect and appreciation of their achievements also.I would also like to welcome our guests present on the stage today:

• Rev Kalala who led us in scripture and prayer and who will also conclude this ceremony with prayer.
• Mr Basilius Haingura, Secretary-General of the Namibian Teachers Union, NAMTU;
• Ms Dorothy August, campus registrar Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University who will present the degree hoods;
• Dr Almero Kok, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Education Sciences, North-West University;
• Professor Manie Spamer, Director for the School of Continuing Teachers Education, of the Faculty of Education Sciences, North-West University;
• Dr Felicitas Etoka-Beka, IUM Brand Coordinator, Ongwediva Campus;
• Mr Pieter Janse van Vuuren, the Registrar of the Institute of Open Learning (IOL);
• Ms Illana Calitz,Head of Education of the Institute of Open Learning (IOL);
• Ms Jeannine van den Heever, Head of Operations of the Institute of Open Learning;
• Directors and staff of the Faculty of Education Sciences and Registrars Office respectively.

Address to meeting

The majority of our students will receive the Advanced Certificate in Education this morning; a qualification which is part of your ongoing commitment to life-long learning, and within the education profession itself, a means by which teachers re-skill, and upgrade their skills and competencies in the classroom. In Namibia, as indeed in all SADC countries including South Africa, education remains the key to economic development and mobility, the upliftment of communities, and the eradication of poverty. Given the critical role associated with education, and the hopes of families, communities and indeed the state as a whole, the pressures are unsurprisingly great on teachers to create the opportunities for learning, and thus to provide for learners the means to unlock their creativity and imaginations, develop their capacities and interests.

For the honourable former President of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, education remains the primary means by which the State enables its economy to become skills-rich, rather than labour intensive. Education enables people to better respond to the challenges faced by a developing economy in a highly globalised and competitive marketplace in which the financial crises of far away nations, impact on even the most remote of locations and opportunities in a country like Namibia (Nampa-Reuters, 2011, 15). Understanding a context such as this implies an understanding of three factors: first, is to understand the competing national and international demands for skilled workers. Second, is understanding that we have a limited resource-base where challenges such as literacy and poverty continue to limit the opportunities for equal access let alone participation in global markets (Kisting, 2011, 1). Third, is understanding that there are particular challenges associated with the developmental state, for example, the development of effective education, primary health care and economic infrastructure.

Education in the above context must fulfil a complex range of tasks and aspirations and I want to describe a few of these here. Education is the only means by which we prepare children to participate as citizens of a democratic Namibia, but also participate and compete for opportunities in the national and international marketplaces. Furthermore, while education is thus the primary means by which citizens participate and take advantage of the opportunities afforded by highly developed skills-sets and critical thinking, education is also means by which the modern state equips its citizens to resist abuses by the state itself, and beyond the state to respond to the humanity’s need for dignity of work and secure employment in sustainable environment. Finally, education must also equip citizens with the skills needed to further develop the state so that even the weakest members of our society (children, women, the poor and aged) are better protected and cared for.

Some of the above are ‘tasks’ in this sense that we are education professionals already fulfil these duties and responsibilities in our day-to-day teaching and administration, but other areas (such as the development of a critically informed and conscientious Namibian citizen) remain aspirations for us as teachers. I term this an ‘aspiration’ because we know that we will never meet perfectly this need precisely because the demands made by the African, Namibian and global contexts keep changing. Furthermore, as our world population grows, and the pressures upon the state to do more for its people, with fewer resources, becomes more acute and indeed the state becomes more vulnerable to the forces of competition to increase economic efficiency, whilst at the same time combating the abuses associated with corruption and dysfunction (Nampa, 2011, 13). Thus, universities and polytechnics have had to change their strategic goals to meet the needs to a rapidly changing world. It is for this reason that adult and life-long learning have become key concepts in our thinking as teachers and teacher educators, in terms on ongoing professional development.

Today I want to celebrate with you an achievement measured in great cost to time and your resources and which we honour today as a University by recognising the work you have done as students, and at the same time I wish to highlight the immense and wonderful contribution to the further development of your communities, now made possible through the completion of your studies.

Development and partnership are critical components for any change strategy. It was Nelson Mandela who said the education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world, and it was Mahatma Ghandi who noted that to effect change in the world you have to be the change you want to see. The achievement of the Advanced Certificate or the Bachelor of Education Honours is thus a way in which you can live, indeed ‘be’, the change you want to be in the world. In order to have achieved these qualifications, we must acknowledge and celebrate the many partnerships critical to our students’ success.

Today we celebrate partnerships in the broad and particular sense: In particular we acknowledge the support provided by colleague-teachers to those teachers studying for further qualifications, we celebrate the loved ones and families present here, who believe in education, and believe in the power of education to transform the lives of our young children such that as they grow they make the best use of the many gifts and talents they have. We celebrate also the support provided by academics, facilitators and administrators from the University to assist you to come to this point of completion and achievement at this ceremony. No other profession, with the exception of health care, demands as much from people in terms of expecting the highest standards of ethical treatment, whilst also maintaining a keen awareness of the dignity of the individual child with whom you work as teachers. Our great achievements throughout history in fields such as science or artrepresent the ability of people to transcend the circumstances of the present and to invent technologies beyond the needs of the present time, or to imagine worlds and possibilities far removed from the limitations of the moment, but the truth is that without a high quality education system, the possibilities for the majority of Namibian citizens to escape cycles of poverty and violence remain slim.

The North-West University offers internationally accredited and properly bench-marked qualifications in Education that also make use of pioneering technologies for open distance learning that will serve the professionals such as you in an African and SADC context where many of the developmental issues and historical challenges are common, and can thus be addressed usefully by sharing learning and experience.

In this way you become partners with a major regional education institution such as North-West University and the Faculty is then able to provide teachers with an accessible means of improving their education, with immediate results and effects in their classroom practice. Through the use of interactive whiteboards,facilitation sites to access tutorial support for learning, the use of innovative technologies such as mob i-sites, and other forms i-learning, the Faculty contributes to the wider development of Southern Africa by exploring ways in which knowledge can not only be communicated in the classroom, but skills developed that make for the development of citizens who are literate, capable, creative and generous with their talents in the upliftment of all our communities whether rural or urban. We support, salute and congratulate our teachers today and I want to welcome you to return to the University in the near future and pursue the furthering of your studies to achieve even greater potential for your professional work and development.

Concluding remarks

In all of this work I have described here there is one message I wish to extend to you today: consider North-West University as your partners for life in the development of knowledge which is linked to your growth, and indeed to the development of the education profession in Namibia wherever you may live and work. Ladies and gentlemen we come now to that part of our celebration today where we confer degrees and diplomas to our students here and present and so I would like to announce the following:By the power vested in me, I hereby confer the following degrees and diplomas on the candidates whose names appear in the programme.

Presentation of graduates

Vote of congratulations

Following such a tremendous recognition of the achievement of our graduandi today let us remember your dedication to our studies, the long nights and weekends spent studying and preparing your work and so let us offer one round of applause again to our students here.

Let us also remember the parents, families and loved ones, friends and support-teams for our graduandi and without whom the achievement celebrated here today would not have been possible, and so let us offer to them a special round of applause.

Finally, to the staff of the IOL, IUM, and the Faculty and Schools of the North-West University who worked with the students, guiding and enriching their lives through the sharing of wisdom and knowledge let us offer to them to a special round of applause.

Prayer

Please stand for the singing of the AU and the National Anthem.

By the power vested in me I hereby dissolve this congregation of the North-West University.

References

Kisting, D. 2011. 98% of teachers not fluent in English. In The Namibian (Newspaper). (26) 214, 09/11/11 p.1.

Author(s) unknown, Nampa, 2011. SADC Protocol Against Corruption Idles. In The Namibian (Newspaper). (26) 214, 09/11/11 p.13.

Author(s) unknown, Nampa-Reuters-AFP, 2011. IMF chief urges ‘political clarity’ from Greece. In The Namibian (Newspaper). (26) 214, 09/11/11 p.15.

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