English Second Language Pedagogy and its Effectiveness in the Rural Milieu of Namibia’s Kavango East Region

After Namibia gained independence, there was a move towards an education for all. This meant that Namibians had to baptize a certain language as their official language. Namibians opted for English as the official language because it was more uniting than using a certain local language. Using a local language as the lingua franca would have empowered one ethnic grouping at the expense of others. In line with the adoption of English as the official language, the Ministry of Education, Arts, Sports and Culture began implementing English as a medium of instruction in all state schools and schools subsidized by government. Undoubtedly this move seems promising for the Namibian education sector but bring with it several challenges, particularly in rural areas. The study employed a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The initial target population of this study was all learners and English language teachers in the rural milieu of Kavango East. However due to numerous constraints, the study comprised of 4 teachers from 2 rural schools of the Kavango East Region. Convenience sampling technique was ideal for this study as not all rural schools were being accessible to the researchers due to economic constraints. Open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interview guides were used in the study. Inductive analysis was used in the study to derive concepts from data. Collected data were descriptively analysed and interpreted question by question. Findings were reported/ presented according to emerging themes. The findings in this study should serve as a wake up for the education ministry to ensure that advisory services are provided to teachers. There is an urgent need for government to invest more into building of classrooms to reduce over crowdedness, more budgetary allocations are needed to equip schools with ICT tools that will advance teaching and learning in the rural schools of Kavango East. Finally, this study recommends capacity building workshops for English teachers at least twice a year as this may equip them with the pedagogical skills to navigate their daily English classroom challenges.