An analysis of economics, supply and demand in the education sector
By Petrus Haikela Hanghuwo |
Every year Namibian tertiary institutions receive tremendous numbers of students that would like to pursue tertiary qualifications.
Nonetheless, the faculty of education is one of the faculties in our tertiary institutions, particularly the University of Namibia (UNAM) and International University of Management (IUM), which receive thousands of applicants and accommodate even more in the end, with more numbers of education graduates released annually by the two institutions.
Having the two institutions becoming rivals at some point in producing teachers, the education sector will record a million graduates that are not yet registered for employment, particularly those trained to teach commerce subjects at high school level; however, the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture has failed big time to dwell on these labour resources that are dormant.
According to UNAM graduates statistics for 2019, over 2000 students graduated with the Faculty of Education, of which not even half of them could secure employment either in the same year or in a year after, with a few adding up to the employed-statistics only in the second year of unemployment. Moreover, over 4000 graduates came from UNAM’s various faculties all together.
So, the graduates surrender their tenacity in the hands of their Ministries especially graduates from Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences (graduates whose major modules could be Accounting & Economics; Economics & Business Studies and/or Accounting & Business Studies which therefore subsume Entrepreneurship).
They, sometimes label themselves as “marginalised.” A term used to describe a group of individuals who are termed “discriminated against by the large group.”
If we count the total number of high schools nationally, they are many, but these graduates and under-graduates question themselves frequently “How many of these high schools offer commerce?” Accounting, Business Studies, Economics and Entrepreneurship respectively! Literary very few!
It is only UNAM (the main campus) and IUM that offer these commerce subjects for secondary level education. This also forms part of the whys and wherefores of the term “marginalised” that is used by the graduates and under-graduates in the Education Sector under the faculty of Economics and Management Science.
In the year 2020, over the same number of 2019 graduates were again produced by UNAM in addition to IUM graduates in inclusion of the so-called “marginalised.”
This would bring a tally of over 10 000 students across the country that graduate of which approximately half of the graduates come from Faculty of Education, Secondary Phase and of which some more are from Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, but there is little the Ministry is doing to introduce commerce in the schools which is currently missing or literary few schools offer it.
The regard is mostly on science, whereas others are ignored. The same change is needed in the education sector in its entirety, maybe to build more schools, but mostly the commerce field to be considered which is almost left out. Eventually, too many graduates are demanding for employment in distinct sectors but the supply of jobs is short.
Economically, there is shortage of supply in the employment sector in the country which invites for the government’s take. It’s up to the government, at the end of the day, to apply measures to cater for this shortage in the economy.
– Petrus Haikela Hanghuwo is a business and economics scholar; a product of the University of Namibia (2020).
