Navigating policy and practice: teachers' views on automatic promotion and its classroom implications in the Mukwe circuit, Namibia.
| dc.contributor.author | Namene, Martha | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-07-31T08:30:56Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-07-31T08:30:56Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025 | |
| dc.description | Thesis of Master in Education Management and Administration. | |
| dc.description.abstract | This study aimed to explore teachers' perceptions, implementation challenges, and the perceived impact of the automatic promotion policy on student engagement and learning outcomes in Namibia's Mukwe Circuit. The Namibian Ministry of Education introduced the automatic promotion policy to address persistently high dropout and repetition rates in Namibian schools. Teachers’ perspectives are central to the policy’s success, as teachers are responsible for its classroom implementation. The study was guided three objectives, which were to examine teachers’ perceptions, to identify the challenges faced by teachers in the Mukwe Circuit during the implementation of the automatic promotion policy, and lastly to explore the impact of the automatic promotion policy on student in the Mukwe Circuit. The researcher worked with teachers from all school phases and three members of management (Heads of department (HOD)) for the interviews after getting clearance from UNZA and the principals from the three schools. The type of Purposeful sampling used was criterion sampling to select teachers for a detailed examination of the policy. Participants were selected based on specific criteria that included school location, this case being schools in a rural area, the selection of schools all came from public schools in the Mukwe Circuit. An interview guide was used in the data collection, of which each interview was recorded with a recording device, and later thematically analyzed. The study has shown that all the participants were not involved in the development of the policy nor did they receive any training on the policy implementation. Teaches find it challenging to ensure that their lesson plans and instructional methods accommodate both groups of learners and finishing the syllabus on time. Analysis has shown that very few teachers are optimistic about the learning outcomes that result from the implementation of the policy and are of the opinion that the policy has negatively affected classroom engagement and has resulted in a decline in achieving expected learning outcomes. The study recommended that there is a need for teachers to revisit the learning support policy as this could help in the effective implementation of the automatic promotion policy. The ministry should consider abolishing the use of the policy at lower primary grade,as these are foundation stages. It has also been noted that the teachers feel like the policy has planned for learners to go through the mainstream, but does not have a plan on what should happen after. In conclusion Findings show that teachers understand the objectives and main goals of the policy, but they feel like the policy is doing more harm than good. Majority of the participants feel like the policy is sending too many learners into the streets after the exit grade and teachers are not happy with teaching learners that were automatically promoted, because they require a lot of attention. Teachers find it challenging to ensure that their lesson plans and instructional methods accommodate both academically inclined learners and those that are low achievers. Finally, teachers not optimistic about the learning outcomes that result from the implementation of the policy. Keywords: Automatic promotion, Policy implementation, Perceiptions, Examination, Learner outcomes | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://dspace.unza.zm/handle/123456789/9307 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | The University of Zambia | |
| dc.title | Navigating policy and practice: teachers' views on automatic promotion and its classroom implications in the Mukwe circuit, Namibia. | |
| dc.type | Thesis |