The Namibia National Students Organization (NANSO) says the country is going through an education crisis and urgent action needs to be taken to remedy the situation.

The spokesperson for the organization, Dorthea Nangolo, says NANSO will visit all 14 regions, starting next week, to assess the readiness of Namibian schools.

The aim of the "Access to Education" campaign is to compile a report to be submitted to the Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture.
 
The report from the "Access to Education" campaign aims to pressure the government into changing the current state of events. 

Nangolo says it is about detailing the conditions at Namibian schools, including those in the most remote areas.

"We have a classroom that accommodates, let's say, 47 learners, but it only has 35 chairs and tables, so you have a situation where learners are sharing tables. But you also have situations where classrooms are in dilapidated, terrible conditions for learners to learn in; you also have situations like hostels, which are very common in the northern regions, especially where hostels are in terrible, terrible condition. It's scary for the hygiene of these learners." 

Nanso says the country cannot talk about quality education when the situation on the ground shows that the school environment is not conducive to learning.

" We will have very strict criteria that all the schools must meet, and if those schools do not meet the criteria, then the ministry must take urgent action on these matters, especially hostel matters and the infrastructure in classrooms. What we can ask of the government is that they be on their feet and ready to run with this report so that, at least by the middle of the year, our Namibian children have better environments for learning." 

The student organization says if these issues are not addressed now, they will become more difficult to tackle in the years to come.

"When we look at the status quo at present and the huge number of learners that we end up throwing out on the street, in 10 years, we are going to be facing a very devastating situation where unemployment has possibly tripled because these learners have nowhere else to go."

Nanso will deploy nearly 600 office bearers to various schools over the course of three weeks.