Namibia is a relative small country on the southwestern part of Africa just north west of South
Africa. Namibia has a population of just over 1,7 million people and became independent from South
Africa in 1990.
Although a mere 0,8% of the population are in fact first language speakers of English, English was
chosen by SWAPO (Southwest Africa People’s Organisation), the ruling party, as the official language
after Namibia’s independence in 1990 for various reasons that are outlined in Towards a language
policy for Namibia (UNIN, 1981). This was overall not an unpopular choice. This decision was outlined
Article 3 (Language) in the Constitution (MIB 1990:3) and also in The Language Policy for Schools
1992 – 1996 – and beyond (MEC 1993).
The “African Languages” and English as the official language for Namibia were already
recognised as equal in status in 1980 at a conference held in Lusaka at the United Nations Institute for
Namibia (UNIN 1981). These languages can be seen as the two focal points around which language
planning in education has operated in Namibia.
My work at the Directorate of National Examinations and Assessment of the Ministry of Basic
Education, Sport and Culture concerns the daily assessment of learners and our workday is spent on
ongoing engagement with how learners learn, how successful they are in learning and how learning can
best be evaluated. The results of the language policy are reflected in the performance of the learners in
the external assessment in Grade 10 and 12. I observed that the learners were not performing as well as
expected and it seemed that they were struggling with the new medium of instruction.
My study took the National Language Policy as point of departure to demonstrate the role that this
policy plays in facilitating learning in the classroom. The focus was thus on the way English as medium
of instruction is implemented, particular in the Upper Primary phase (Grades 4 – 7).
The following questions were very important to my research:
• Does the current Language policy make learning possible?
• Do most teachers have the confidence and proper English language proficiency to teach in English
as medium of instruction?
• To what degree does Namibian teachers revert to mother tongue as medium of instruction when
they teach to express themselves?
• Will a bilingual language policy, where both English and the mother tongue are used, as medium
of instruction, be able to improve the learner’s proficiency in English?