Written question asked by Nicholas Winterton (Conservative) on Wednesday, 28 February 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 2 March 2007. It was answered by Hilary Benn (Labour) on Wednesday, 7 March 2007 on behalf of the Department for International Development.

Namibia: Overseas Aid

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assistance is given by his Department to support education programmes in Namibia; and whether any of those programmes are delivered in English.

Answer: DFID no longer has a bilateral programme in Namibia and so is not bilaterally supporting education programmes there. We are, however, doing so through the European Commission (EC) which has allocated €21 million during the period 2003-07 to support education through the ‘Namibia Education Sector Programme’ under the 9th European Development Fund (EDF9). €18 million of this is provided directly to the Government of Namibia as earmarked budget support. The remaining €3 million are allocated to building capacity and providing of technical assistance in the education sector. The UK share of EDF9 is 12.7 per cent.As the EC’s ‘Namibia Education Sector programme’ provides direct funding to the education budget in Namibia, it is the Government of Namibia's education policies that determine the language of instruction in schools. This recommends the use of mother tongues as the medium of instruction from grades 1 to 3, with grade 4 as a transitional grade. English is used as the medium of instruction from grades 5 to 12.

Secondary information