NETA NEWS

Friends
The Mini-conference and workshop was a thumping success ! There were nearly 70 participants and many of them from the Secondary and Primary Schools in and around Windhoek.
The Conference kicked off with the Rector of the Polytechnic of Namibia, Dr. Tjama Tjivikua, giving the Welcome Address. He stressed on the importance of imparting proper English to our students. "But it is also necessary to develop our African languages, we should not forget our tradition," he stated. The first Keynote speaker was Dr. Dolores Woolfaardt who has been associated with the Examination System in Namibia for the past twenty years. Quoting figures from trace studies she has conducted over a period of time, she said that students who get a "C" symbol in Grade 10 of IGCSE, generally slip to two grades below their original one in HIGSCE, that is, Standard 12. Therefore, the secondary school teachers have a great reponsibility to prepare students for the tertiary level.

The Deputy Minister of Education, honourable Dr. Becky Ndjoze-Ojo graced the occasion with her presence and in the afternoon she delivered her Key note address where she emphasised the need for networking and encouraged all school teachers to become NETA members. She congratulated NETA for the good work that we are doing.

Over the two days there were four plenary sessions presented by Ms. Cynthia Murray who spoke about Rubrics; Dr. Tara Elyssa who presented on Grammar errors and how to improve students performance; Dr. Marna Broekhoff who explained to teachers the importance of writing and different kinds of writing across the curriculum and Dr. Sarala Krishnamurthy who elaborated on Classroon assessment techniques which could be used by teachers to evaluate themselves for self improvement.
All four plenary sessions were followed by workshops where the teachers had an opportunity to try out whatever had been described in the plenaries.
At the end of the activity, the teachers were asked to evaluate the sessions. There was also a General Body Meeting where new Executive Committee Members were elected.
All the teachers have evaluated the conference and workhsop as "Excellent/very good". The evluation forms also include what the teachers would like NETA to do in future.

We would like to encourage all English Teachers to join NETA.

NETA NEWS

Hello Friends

I am really excited to announce the Mini-conference and workshop we are holding this weekend at the
Polytechnic of Namibia. The over-arching theme of the Mini-conference is "Language Assessment". Last year
more than 25,000 students failed in Grade 10, which is indeed a cause for concern.Therefore we believe
that the workshops are timely and beneficial to all the participants who are going to attend.

The Presidential Address will be given by Dr.Becky Ndjoze-Ojo, the Deputy minister of Education, who is a
renowned academician in her own right and the Key note speaker is Dr.Dolores Woolfaardt,
who has worked tirelessly for years as the Examinations Officer for the Cambridge IGCSE and HIGSCE exams
in Namibia. They bring a wealth of experience that all teachers of English can draw inspiration from.
The two addresses will be followed by four plenary sessions which deal with different aspects of
assessments. The Plenary sessions will be followed by workshops to provide an opportunity to teachers
to try out whatever has been explained in the plenaries so that they can go back to their classes
having learnt some useful strategies and apply them for successful learning.
I hope you will all be able to participate in this endeavour and make the Mini-conference and Workshop
successful.
Best regards
Sarala