The Education Inspector in the Omaheke Region, Eliakim Kavari, says the region's poor examination results and poor performance in national rankings are serious concerns.

The new curriculum also came with its own challenges, particularly in terms of the amount of work given to learners versus the time frame and career guidance, among others.

Kavari shared this during a stakeholder engagement with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Science, Information Communication Technology, and Youth Development at Gobabis.

Kavari says that despite these challenges, language subjects such as Khoekhoegowab, Setswana,and Afrikaans need serious attention at the regional level, as this affects learners' results at the end of the year.

"Omaheke is very unique if you're comparing it with other regions. Due to its vastness, the issue of monitoring is a little bit of a challenge because you must travel 400 km to reach schools. That is one aspect. The other aspect is the issue of the mother tongue. We are having the challenge of having qualified teachers teach in our African languages, especially Khoekhoe, Setswana, and Afrikaans, and it's where most of the other children are getting their better symbols to improve their overall performance. The rest are national challenges. I think we are discussing this with them so that they can be able to take this up at a high level for us to be able to assist in this aspect."

Kavari adds that they have carried out various engagements with key stakeholders in the education sector to improve academic results.

The chairperson of the standing committee, Olivia Hanghuwo, says that after they establish the challenges facing the regional education sector, they will look at the modalities in place to remedy the situation.

"Of course, when we're done with everything with the whole oversight visit, we will compare reports and then take them back to the national council so that we can deliberate on them in the chamber, and then from there, we take them to the relevant members, those national assembly members, and the line ministry so that we can also see that we can get solutions from this in the future."

The group of national leaders also engaged with some local learners.