The Kavango East Region alone consists of 45 schools grappling with overcrowding out of a total of 167 schools.

This information was revealed by Knox Otto Imbuwa, the Acting Executive Director of the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, in response to demands made by unemployed teachers in the Kavango West and East regions for immediate mass recruitment.

He recently issued a media statement addressing the issue.

‘It is true that there are isolated cases of schools with overcrowded classrooms in various regions. The ministry has identified these schools and targeted them to benefit under the ongoing emergency construction of classrooms,’ Imbuwa acknowledged.

In the Kavango East Region, Imbuwa pointed out that four circuits, namely Mukwe, Shinyungwe, Shambyu and Rundu, have classrooms accommodating learner numbers ranging from 40 to 80 learners.

According to the 15th Day School Report of 2023, there are currently 31 974 teachers nationwide in the teaching service, responsible for educating 864 767 learners across 2 002 schools, including both public and private institutions. The national learner-to-teacher ratio thus stands at 27.0.

Imbuwa noted that the Kavango East Region has the highest learner-to-teacher ratio, standing at 32.3, while Oshana has the lowest ratio at 24.0.

Regarding additional teacher posts across the country for the current academic year of 2023, Imbuwa mentioned that the Ministry of Finance allocated additional funding amounting to N.dollars 243 million to cater for 747 new teaching posts on the ministerial establishment.

‘In addition to these, seven school principals, 29 heads of departments and 30 cleaners, all being new positions, were created. These posts were then proportionally allocated to the respective regions, which have since completed the recruitment process,’ he added.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency