The Deputy Executive Director of the Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture says the education system is in crisis.

Edda Bohn attributes the current state of affairs in education, including the poor performance of learners in the new curriculum, to the economic recession experienced prior to 2016.

Bohn says that the funding availed by the central government to effectively implement the new curriculum has not been sufficient.

The inadequate funding, she says, hampers the purchase of required teaching tools, such as enough textbooks, and also makes it challenging for the ministry to effectively provide in-depth training to its educators.

While acknowledging that the ministry is faced with a lack of teachers and a backlog of appointing educators, Bohn says that the training of teaching staff is not the same as it was prior to independence.

But these, according to Bohn, are not the only contributing factors to the poor state of education in the country.

"If you do the analysis... our teacher/learner ratio is below the norm; the norm is 35 for primary, 30 for secondary, and 25 for pre-primary."

Bohn also stated that the public wage bill remains large, and the appointment of additional teaching staff could be a further burden on the state coffers.

The Deputy Executive Director further defended the new curriculum, which was implemented about two years ago.

Though teachers and students have bemoaned the new curriculum, Bohn says the curriculum is benchmarked on international standards, including Namibia's national development plans such as the Harambee Prosperity Plan.

"The curriculum is aligned with these aspirations of becoming a knowledge-based economy and society; there are ingredients required for the curriculum to work."

Bohn further explained that the ministry knew of the possible challenges that the new curriculum would come with, including a caution by UNESCO.

Dorthea Nangolo, the spokesperson for NANSO, says that the authorities placed teachers in the deep end by introducing the new curriculum without providing proper training to the educators.

"I think it is scary that a teacher is expected to deliver on a curriculum that they do not understand, how do you walk into a class to deliver knowledge that you yourself do not understand?"

She, therefore, calls on the ministry to make training on the new curriculum mandatory.