The Minister of Education, Arts and Culture, Anna Nghipondoka, says the government is pursuing various funding models to address the backlog in classrooms nationwide.
Speaking at the handover of the upgraded Linus Shashipapo Secondary School in the Kavango East's Ndiyona, Nghipondoka said the country has a backlog of about 4500 classrooms.
She said more than a thousand hostel blocks are needed to accommodate learners in the proximity of schools.
The Linus Shashipapo School and hostel were renovated and expanded at a cost of N$102 million with a loan from the Africa Development Bank.
She says Linus Shashipapo was prioritised because it was dilapidated and a danger to learners and teachers.
"Yes, our government has over the years been committed to allocating funds annually through its basic education facilities to build classrooms and other basic education infrastructure, and thousands of them have been built. It is nevertheless worth mentioning at this juncture that the infrastructure backlog in the MOEAC 5 is insurmountable."
The revamp was part of the N$1 billion loan Namibia secured from the African Development Bank's Education and Training Quality Improvement Project to renovate and upgrade 22 schools countrywide.
The government allocated N$400 million of that amount to implementing the project.
Nghipodoka says vocational training centres and the University of Namibia will also benefit from the fund, which is being administered by the Ministry of Education.
She says the government is considering public-private partnerships as one of the funding models to accelerate the delivery of classrooms.
"We cannot wait anymore. We just need somebody or a group of companies with money to come to us as MoE or after this is approved. The project must be approved first. Then we go out on an expression of interest and say, "I have a billion dollars. I want to build all your 4000 classrooms. As a government, you pay me in five years."Then we agree and then they go and build. Within a year or two, they are finished with those classrooms. "
The minister is confident that once the target number of classrooms are constructed, unemployed graduate teachers roaming the streets could be absorbed.
The Andara Combined School was renovated and upgraded, while the Markus Ihemba Primary in Rundu's Sauyemwa Informal Settlement is a brand new school.