According to the 2024 National End-of-Phase Grade 3 Assessment, only 32% of learners achieve the minimum numeracy benchmark of 40%. 

To strengthen numeracy skills among junior primary learners, the Education Directorate in the Khomas Region hosted a Junior Primary Math Olympiad Competition in Windhoek. 

The assessment further found that just 5% of learners reached or surpassed the higher benchmark of 75% in numeracy.

The assessment identified several areas where many learners struggle, including counting competency, comparing numbers, and understanding place values.

Based on these findings, the assessment concludes that Namibia is facing urgent foundational literacy and numeracy challenges.

"One of our strategic objectives is to improve the level of numeracy nationally, and we also prioritise presentation skills. Therefore, once we empower our learners, we ensure they have a strong foundation in mathematics. Then we will have better engineers in the future because mathematics is really crucial in our strategic objective," said Smiley Mieze, Senior Education Officer in the |Khomas Region Office. 

The Junior Primary Math Olympiad Competition was introduced as a strategic initiative for teachers to promote innovative, curriculum-aligned teaching aids that will strengthen the learners' numeracy development skills. 

The competition also serves as a platform for learners to demonstrate their abilities in numeracy. 

"These learners participate at the school level before advancing to the cluster level. We have nine clusters in the |Khomas Region. The winners are now at a regional level, and there are 27 participants in this math Olympiad for grades one to three."