At Independence Namibia chose English as its main naonal language although it had no
history of English as a colonial language and few cizens who spoke it as their first language.
The decision has been well supported and there is an expectaon among Namibians that
learning English as early as possible is important because it will open many doors to the
future.
The decision was supported by a language policy for schools that sets down that learners
be taught in their home language from grades 1-3 and in English from grade 4 onwards.
However, despite high levels of spending on educaon, failure rates in educaon as a whole
remain high. For example, only four in ten (39%) learners starng school in 2009 are expected
to reach grade 12.
The literature review suggests that the longer a child learns in his or her home language the
more successful she or he will be at school.
The research itself used quesonnaires, interviews and focus group discussions among
learners, teachers, parents and educaonalists to discover a&tudes; to home language
learning and to link these a&tudes; to the success of learners. In this way, an understanding
of how the different categories of people in educaon see home language learning was
gained.
The research shows that a high proporon of learners are confused by the second language
(English) in which they are taught. They want to succeed at school generally and in English
in parcular but do not understand their subjects well enough because of the problems
of language. The research also shows that teachers, parents and educaonalists do not
fully understand the problems learners face with language and o'en a"ribute poor learner
performance to lack of interest and commitment. Parents are keen to see their children
succeed in English but are divided as to how best this can be achieved. Educaonalists are
divided as to the correctness of the language policy, with those in the regions seeing the
language policy as failing learners.
The research concludes that a major review of the language policy is needed to stop connuing
failure among learners and reflects on how policy makers might see the challenge of mother
tongue learning and encourage its stronger use to achieve be"er educaonal results.