The Executive Director at the Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture, Sanet Steenkamp, says her ministry continues to face many challenges.

Steenkamp specifically pointed out the way the community and stakeholders perceive education as a major hurdle.

"Education should be viewed as an investment, this is the biggest gift, the purest of all that government can give to its people, it is also the biggest gift that parents can give to their children, so the debate around how to invest in education where is the state's obligation and where are the parents' obligation, those are issues that we still need to debate robustly, openly, especially in the new year, 2023."

The Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture received about N$15 billion for the financial year 2022–2023, and while expressing satisfaction towards the central government for the large chunk of the national budget, Steenkamp maintains that education remains expensive.

The Executive Director is calling on all stakeholders to tirelessly and continuously invest time and financial resources into the education sector.

She says the sector requires specific resources to operate at maximum capacity.

"We continue to experience classroom shortages, and with our accelerated infrastructure development plan in the ministry, we also intend, should the resources be available, to close the gap in the coming years in terms of infrastructure development."

Steenkamp further highlighted the pregnancy of school-going girls as a major thorn experienced by the ministry.

She encourages society to take an active role in overcoming this challenge and prioritizing the safety and well-being of girls.

"For every child that misses an opportunity to go to school, it is our job as a community to get this child identified, along with our teachers, and make sure that they attend school and that they achieve the required learning outcomes that we all seek."