The Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture has approved the construction of an extra school in Oshakati to address the shortage of classrooms in pre-grade and grade one, which is currently a concern in the Oshana Region.

Education Minister Anna Nghipondoka announced this while speaking at a meeting with the Oshana Education Directorate leadership and learners to analyse the 2023 academic results.

"I sent another letter to the Minister of Finance to say for this financial year 2024/2025 we still have other projects to be implemented; that letter has gone and we are still waiting for approval."

The school planned for Oshakati is part of many other schools that the ministry plans to construct during this financial year.

During the last financial year, the ministry constructed one thousand classrooms, of which 58 were constructed in the first phase and 32 in the second phase.

The Deputy Director of Education in Oshana, Hilma George-Nuunyango, said the region is often faced with classroom shortages to accommodate pre-grade and grade one learners.

This year, the directorate was forced to send back pre-primary learners to private kindergarten to accommodate the grade ones as there were not enough classrooms.

The affected learners are to be absorbed in grade one in 2025.