The Africa footprint

The Department of Education Leadership and Management is currently involved with the development of school principals in Namibia, through the delivery of an ACE-qualification in School Management and Leadership. The programme is jointly sponsored by the FNB-Namibia Foundation and the Rössing Uranium Mining Group, as well as Skorpion Zinc (Karas-region) and administered by the Namibian Personal Development Institute (NPDI) as approved by the Ministry of Education. The Windhoek College of Education has been harnessed as the strategic partner in Namibia, in order to assist with cohort support, network learning and on-site activity validation. The Namibia Qualifications Authority (NQA) has evaluated the qualification, as being comparable to a Diploma at NQF-Level 7 and declared that the UJ-Qualification meets “the NQA eligibility for evaluation upon successful completion.

The University of Johannesburg conducts the ACE School Leadership and Management programme annually in both Namibia and in South Africa. Sponsors such as Anglo Scorpion Foundation, FNB Foundation and Popkewitz Foundation have made it possible for the Department of Education Leadership and Management to offer this programme in Namibia with success.

This programme is now running in its third year in the Namibianregions of Karas and Otjozondjupa. The director of the Otjozondjuba region has seized the opportunity to empower principals with management and leadership skills in that region. As part of their drive to collaborate internationally, Harvard University sent a representative, Mr Alistair Witten, along with the visiting lectures to the two new cohorts in Namibia.

The aim of this programme is to empower school managers with management and leadership skills to develop practice-based education as well as to improve teaching in learning. In addition to the Namibia programme, the University has also been working closely with Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance, Uplands School in Mpumalanga and Richards Bay.