Student activists in the ||Kharas Region fear that ordinary skills might have to be imported in the future as student admissions to tertiary institutions in the country decrease each year.
Out of the 738 candidates that registered for the 2022 Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary (NSSCO) level in the ||Kharas Region, only 208 qualified for the 2023 Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Advanced Subsidiary (NSSCAS) level, representing 28%.
Queen Pieter recently completed her Bachelor of Communications at NUST. The 21-year-old says that the low qualifying percentage is worrisome and needs collective intervention.
"It's very important to see that if we then import these basic things, how much more if we have to import people from outside to come and do our work here? The Namibians are being employed by these people, and we see what is happening with foreigners in Namibia not respecting the Labor Act, so what more will happen if we import people from foreign countries into our Namibia? Can we then say, 'Where is the patriotism? Where is the Ubuntu spirit within Namibia?'."
Ivan Mueze is the Project Manager of the ||Kharas Arts Dance Academy. He currently operates from the multi-purpose youth resource centre at Keetmanshoop, where he assists struggling learners with homework and social support.
He says many out-of-school young people are just wandering the streets aimlessly, and he is worried about those who could not make it to institutions of higher learning.
"For example, at the youth center now, we try to bring them in and give them social skills, but if we don't do anything, nothing happens. Like now, for example, if you look around the ||Kharas region, you will not find more programs like ours, which means that we don't keep these young people busy, and at the end of the day, it's a problem for us, and later on, we start blaming."
At a recent media briefing, the Namibia National Students Organization called for the formation of a strong and diverse technical committee to provide clear and urgent direction on the country's educational situation.