Documentary analysis

A documentary analysis serves as useful tool to gather information that is helpful in explaining social and education practices. This means that analysing documents provides a better insight into a situation and also provides clearer explanations of matters in education (Best & Kahn, 2006).

It is important to realise that a documentary analysis may be limited in certain aspects. Several limitations of documentary analysis, such as authenticity, credibility, representing and meaning may be identified. The authenticity of a document concerns its genuineness; whether it is actually what it claims to be (Alasuutari et al., 2009:293). Kabende ( 2015:55) mentions that in order to ensure reliability of the documentary source in her study, the inclusion of each document was guided by the following questions:

• Is the document an original or a copy and has it been corrupted in any way?

• What about the authorship: is it possible to authenticate the identity of those responsible for producing the document?

Many decisions and results of the application of policies have influenced the history of the development of the social fibre in Oranjemund. Namdeb being the custodian of mining activities, the town and all its amenities, health and education, needed to draw up policies and procedures for every level of its operations. This was done in line with the requirements of the mining licence. Safety and security were part of these important policies. In this approach the historian declares a perspective which informs the reconstruction of the past events. There is no necessary view of the progress of history towards a particular outcome, but there is a view that particular interests have been manifested through a historical epoch and that these can be reconstructed through an analysis of documents and events.

To be able to study the policies influencing the historical development of the education processes in Oranjemund, a proper documentary analysis would be needed. Data related to learner numbers, the number of available classrooms and the number of teaching staff would be a valuable resource for information influencing the outcomes of recommendations. Financial details and the school budget would only be expressed in percentages and not the actual values, which will contribute to the gathering of the necessary information. A documentary analysis is therefore essential as a research method. The MoEAC’s relevant policies were used in this research, as well as all relevant national newspaper articles and circulars emanating from the MoEAC. Namdeb policies were also used in this analysis.

I explained in Chapter Four how the policies and sudden changes in policies affected the community of Oranjemund in many ways. These policies were designed with the best intentions in mind, but not keeping every small rural town’s uniqueness in mind. The MoEAC designs policies for the broader education spectrum, but leaves little room for manoeuvres within the perimeters of the policy to adapt to each small community’s unique needs.

Namdeb policies were written with the view of protecting the Company’s main assets and to produce diamonds safely while having the social responsibility of managing a town. The changes and challenges facing this dynamic community now will see many of the Mine’s policies change together with the policies of the newly appointed local authority and GRN line ministries.

2.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY

In an effort to describe the Research Methodology, I was very relieved to get to understand the difference between methodology and method. I described the difference and it basically means that methodology describes the theory behind research and method describes the practical part of the research. In other word; the what is different from the how.

The research methodology would remind me about the context in which the study is taking place, but also in the context, the study needs to be understood. For instance, the Mine needs to understand the needs of the community and the community needs to understand the needs of the Mine. The one cannot survive without the other and will always depend on the other. This relationship however will need to change for the sake of the future and that is where the method of the research will assist as well. The way data is going to be gathered and how the data is understood against the past and current circumstances, will determine the success of the recommendations that may be followed from the study.

The hermeneutics research methodology greatly assists in understanding the issue about where the community comes from and where it is planning to go. The past connects with future in a logical way.

The way in which past and future information is going to be presented is going to determine the quality of participation of the residents of Oranjemund in shaping and accepting their new transformed town.

Analysing the applicable documents and policies will give us a clear insight in where mistakes were made in the past or even so, where answers to future problems were actually addressed already. Some policies will have to be adapted and some will have to be replaced by new policies addressing the future social development of Oranjemund as a normal town. Not only this, the Mine will relinquish many of these issues, which will have to be taken up by local government and the line ministries.

Their policies and procedures are in place, but may need small adaptation regarding Oranjemund’s transition from being a closed town to an open town.

I am extremely comfortable with the selected research methods. I am in the middle of finding the solution to the research question and I am well-experienced in my work as an education manager.

The research methodology fits exactly in with my understanding of the research question and how it related to the community I serve.

CHAPTER THREE

LITERATURE REVIEW

3.1 INTRODUCTION

Doing the literature review for the study proposal kick-started my hunger for more and relevant information on the subject. I encountered many articles and research studies done on topics related to private school education. The literature review includes academic studies and literature that need to be understood. The meaning obtained in the literature needs to be extracted and interpreted. The policy documents and related documentation in the form of circulars, notes and newspaper articles were interpreted and analysed to understand their meaning against the literature study. I was able to extract the following five meanings from the literature study that will be analysed to address the research question:

• Access to vs. choice of quality education,

• Sustainability,

• Funding and revenue streams,

• Return on investment, and

• Low-fee private schools.

Each one of the meanings above will be discussed under the same headings in this chapter.

To understand the context and development of Namibia’s education system, I needed to take a look at how education delivery arrived at the point where it is today. This will shed some light on how the education selected for this remote community so many years ago developed to where it is today.

Prior to Namibia’s independence from South Africa, education delivery in Namibia was fairly fractured and based on the Apartheid policies at the time. A Commission of Enquiry was appointed by the South African Government in 1962, under the chairmanship of Mr Frans Hendrik Odendaal, to submit a report with recommendations and a Five-Year Plan to accelerate the development of all non-white groups and to further develop the Native Territories in South West Africa (Namibia today).

The Odendaal Plan, as it was referred to, prepared the way for South Africa to apply its controversial domestic “homelands” policy to South West Africa, intensifying separate development in the territory (Levinson, 1976). Each indigenous group in Namibia had its own representative government with its own education department reporting to the Administrator-General for South West Africa.

Only after Namibia’s independence in 1990 were the rights of children to education inscribed in the constitution, supported by the Education Act (The Democratic Republic of Namibia, 2001). The rights of children to education were never regarded as an issue before the Mine was started. Soon after commissioning the Mine, a community school was started in a house, with less than 12 children.

The private school was opened as a new school in 1952 and moved into its new premises, where the current private school still is located today (Corbett, 2002). The private school developed over the years to become one of the best private schools in the country. The school delivered many learners who developed their foundations at primary school level and who returned to their different communities as proud ex-private school learners. Some of these former learners are Coreen Swanepoel, the first woman to swim between Robben Island and Bloubergstrand (Disabled Olympiad), Kobus Wiese from SuperSport, and the country’s current First Lady, Monica Geingos.

If I take the development of Oranjemund as a town into consideration, and looking at the scope of the work at hand, it will be a challenge in many regards to develop a suitable education solution. It is important that we embark on this process in the correct way and leave room for small adjustments along the way.

After the independence of Namibia in 1990, the Government of the Republic of Namibia (GRN) embarked on an education transformation programme to redress the shortcomings of the Cape Education Department and the Bantu education system in practice in the country prior to its independence. I argue that the introduction of the Cambridge education system in Namibia was certainly a welcome change, but with it came norms and standards that made it difficult to spread the education system across the country. Equity was lost, however, when the policies of the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture (MoEAC) changed in order to allow access for as many learners as possible (The Democratic Republic of Namibia, 2001).

One of the outflows of this was the overcrowding of classes and the subsequent drop in education standards and discipline. Prior to Namibia’s independence there were a number of private schools, mainly linked to church organisations that established these schools during the colonial era. After independence and with the decrease in education standards, parents in communities who wanted to maintain good quality education for their children established many private schools. This, of course, is a very costly endeavour, especially for the communities who opted for the IEB programme. Parents in these communities managed to fund and sustain these schools.

All private schools in Namibia are regulated through the Education Act 16 of 2001 of Namibia. All private schools are required to register with the MoEAC, even if the parents are home schooling their children.

The economic profile of the parent community of any private school will directly relate to how the school would be managed or funded. It is very difficult to establish whether parents would be able to afford the private school fees. One could assume that a certain portion of the parents would be able to do so, but there would still be a portion of parents who would like to see a return on their investment. The social return on investment would be a determining factor for parents and sponsors to invest in a school. As Cynthia Gair puts it (2001:2): “… [for] each dollar invested in our portfolio agencies’ efforts, there are impressive, quantifiable resulting benefits to individuals and to society”.