Namibia At Namibian tertiary institutions, there are no specialised and officially recognised courses for practising journalists to develop their skills further, for instance in photojournalism or environmental reporting. It was felt that there is a need for independent, professional training for working journalists. A point was raised that there is a lack of media text on Namibia. “Training institutions are not creating an environment where Namibian journalists can do additional research on Namibia, for a Masters degree, for example.” Due to a shortage of staff at most media houses, editors of the main newspapers are reluctant to release journalists for one-month’s training in another country, for example, and prefer in-house, onthe-job training. The disadvantage of this is that those receiving such training do not acquire any formal qualification. There was a feeling that the government should realise the importance of sending its journalists away for intensive training. “Government journalists are not well equipped. Perhaps they have just a diploma. They do not specialise in anything. The government should look into this for their own interests.” In an important development, both UNAM and the Polytechnic are preparing to submit their curricula for accreditation under the National Qualifications Framework, which will accredit these qualifications at appropriate levels. A key point is that these institutions are involving the industry in this process to ascertain where training is lacking and what kind of training is relevant. It was suggested that media houses should offer bursaries or scholarships to students of media studies to enhance the profession, as is the case, for example, with banks. 50 African Media Barometer - Namibia 2007