First Gentleman, Epaphras Ndaitwah has called for greater attention to challenges facing the boy child, warning that school dropouts and crime could limit their future.

Addressing learners, parents and young people in Opuwo, Ndaitwah highlighted that more than 13,000 boys dropped out of school countrywide during 2024 and 2025, with Kunene accounting for over one thousand cases.

He urged young people to remain in school, warning that dropping out could expose them to difficult circumstances and limit their future opportunities.

"You are running away from problems into more problems because you are making yourself not to be educated."

Ndaitwah also highlighted concerns over crime, with Kunene recording more than 2,000 cases during the 2025/26 financial year.

He reminded parents that education remains critical to giving boys better opportunities in life.

"Today we are living in the 21st century, where the world has advanced, and that advanced world is looking for people who, with full understanding, have gone to school."

The First Gentleman further called for greater attention to men's health, noting that more than eight in every ten suicides recorded nationally in 2023/24 were men.

"Let us take care of our health; we need to be a healthy nation, and so doing is if we take regular testing and go to medical services to understand our own bodies."

Ndaitwah urged fathers and male teachers to be visible role models, while reminding boys that discipline, education and purpose can open the door to a better future.