We helped set up a mobile based platform in Namibia to inform and engage young people on their rights on education

ACCOUNTABILITY & EDUCATION

Improving civic participation of the youth in Namibia through the use of mobile phones

Namibia, june 2011

Given the unsatisfactory quality of teaching and performance of learners combined with a relatively high number of lower- and high school drop outs in all of Namibia, the aim of this project was to expand the knowledge of young people on their rights for education, through civic participation in the democratic process. Specific goals of the project were:

To encourage young people to participate in opinion polls in realizing the rights of young people to participate in democratic decision making process
To collect ideas from young people on how education can be improved
To encourage public debate on educational issues raised by the youth
To ensure that the youth knows how to channel their concerns on education to the appropriate authorities
To compile a report on young people’s priorities and opinions on educational matters, to be discussed in Children’s Parliament 2011 and other suitable platforms

In view of the popularity of mobile phones amongst the youth, a mobile based platform was set up to gather opinions of the youth on a range of matters affecting them . Over 6,000 young Namibians participated in this Interactive Voice Response opinion poll, developed jointly by the NID, UNICEF and the Namibian Ministry of Education. The technical expertise for the execution of this poll was provided by Text to Change and the Namibian company Mobipay.

Results:

Of the 6,620 callers, a total of 3,668 (55%) valid responses up to the last question were received
61.5% of all callers chose to respond to questions dealing with issues about teachers, activities and services at school, while 38.5% of the callers preferred to respond to questions covering issues relating to the environment of the school and safety issues.
Remarkable results of these surveys were, among others, 55% of all participating students had been hit by a teacher, although corporal punishment is not allowed in schools , and 58% of all students responding that there aren’t sufficient textbooks for every learner in their school.

From these results, 102 specific problems were identified and divided under fifteen categories like study materials and quality of teachers and teaching methods. Finally, in order to ensure the civic involvement of the youth of school going age, specific support was provided to assist them to advocate on education related issues of concern to the relevant authorities.