Almost three weeks into the new academic year, the Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture is still addressing overcrowded classrooms and a 29.5% increase in candidates, which amounts to 12,031 learners who qualified for the Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Advanced Subsidiary (AS) level for this year.

This surge has placed significant pressure on the ministry to secure schools, qualified teachers, and placements for these learners.

"There is a need for an Advanced Subsidiary, and we are in contact with the regional councillors of Education, Arts, and Culture to open more classes, whether it's at a new secondary school in a way that we would introduce AS at this school that means that we will support the teachers and also resource this school further to be able to offer Advanced Subsidiary (AS)," said Deputy Executive Director Edda Bohn.

Speaking on AS, Bohn also clarified the reasons behind the limited availability of Entrepreneurship as an AS-level subject, saying while the demand is high, only a few schools currently offer it.

"Some subjects are more favoured by the learners than others; we try to accommodate all the preferences of the learners, and as the system grows, we will continue to expand for that. We also need qualified teachers, so we will continue to capacitate teachers through refresher courses and workshops so that they are content confident delivering their Advanced Subsidiary learning content."

Bohn emphasised that the priority is to keep all learners in school rather than excluding them and denying them the opportunity to receive an education, while also implementing necessary measures to address the challenges.

"The Ministry has given guidance to all the directors, inspectors, and school principals to see to it that we split these overcrowded classes into platoon classes and double shifts and additional teachers being allocated. We are asking for patience to get this right with the recruitment of teachers to make sure that no classes will be overcrowded."

Bohn assured stakeholders that these challenges are being tackled through targeted interventions and policy adjustments.