Namibia needs to decolonise its education sector by establishing a unified and explicit vision to achieve its goals.

These were some of the sentiments expressed by panellists during a discussion on decolonizing education financing.

Historically, Namibia's education system suffered from imbalances during the colonial era, hence the need to develop effective policies that will decolonize and dismantle the oppressive education system.

Regional heads and stakeholders in the education sector in the Zambezi Region shared interventions that will improve national results in the region.

They also identified bottlenecks that impeded the desired results.

Stakeholders identified a shortage of textbooks, hostels, and classrooms, while the placement of teachers according to their specialisation is also a factor of concern.

The Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture says it will strive towards the achievement of its key mandate of ensuring conducive teaching and learning in the country's education system.

Anna Nghipodoka said this while motivating her ministry's budgetary allocation of N$16.7 billion for 2023/24 financials in the National Assembly.

In a close to 36-page speech, the Education, Arts, and Culture Minister took time to explain where the biggest chunk of the country's national budget will be used for.

The Managing Director of High Economic Intelligence in Namibia believes vocational training could be part of the solution to improving the quality of education in the country.

Salomo Hei addressed a Nedbank economic breakfast panel discussion held at Swakopmund on Wednesday.

Hei says Namibia has worked hard to improve access to basic education, but there is still significant work to be done.

He says it is imperative that the government ensure that education is adequately resourced.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, held a round-table meeting with education stakeholders at Katima Mulilo.

The roundtable was meant to discuss opportunities and possible solutions to the poor academic performance of last year's national examinations.

Nandi-Ndaitwah reminded the gathering of the importance of education as one of the enablers of development alongside agriculture, tourism, mining, and fishing.

She called upon all to be friends with education and find solutions to its challenges.

Ministry of Education Arts and Culture's Executive Director, Sanet Steenkamp says that multi-lingual education enhances the quality of education in the country.

Steenkamp said this as Namibia joins the rest of the world in celebrating international mother language day.

It was 71 years ago that four young students were killed in Bangladesh during a protest on language controversy that birthed the celebration of International day.

Not far from home, 47 years ago in Soweto, South Africa, was the scene of a massive uprising known as the 'Soweto Uprising.'

Learners of St. Therese Secondary and Nowak Primary Schools at Tses Village in ||Kharas Region can now broaden their knowledge through reading books, thanks to a library donation.

Various international members of the Rotary Network funded the library housed in one of the Nowak Primary School classrooms.

A German couple, Barbara and Wolfgang Mathea, initiated the library project and sourced funding from fellow Rotarians.

Both retired teachers say they decided to invest in the country's education sector following their first vacation to Namibia in 1993.

A local economist, Salomo Hei, says despite education receiving the lion's share of the budget over the years, Namibia is unable to reap the dividends from this investment.

Hei was giving a presentation ahead of the national budget that will be tabled this week.

"From 1990 to date, for every one dollar that GRN has spent, 18 cents of that went to education. The point is that we are spending so much on education and sectors like health, but for one reason or another, the service delivery has not been desirable. It has not met the expectations, and that's quite worrying."

Hardap Governor Salomon April has urged learners to study hard so that they can perform well in this year's examinations.

Governor April visited the Mariental Secondary School, where he used the opportunity to motivate learners and teachers to take education seriously.

April's visit to some schools in the region came as a result of last year's poor performance of NSSCO results countrywide.

Stakeholders in education have welcomed a motion for free Wi-Fi at schools nationwide.
 
They expressed these sentiments during a public hearing by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information, Communication, Technology, and Innovation at Oshakati.

The motion on free Wi-Fi in schools, public transport, and public institutions was tabled by Swapo member of parliament Modestus Amutse in the National Assembly in February last year.