Patience Makwele
Teachers in the Omusati region say they are tired of teaching in makeshift “shacks” (classrooms), with some schools still struggling with basic sanitation, administrative space and facilities needed for practical subjects.
The concerns were raised during an African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) validation workshop in the region on Tuesday, where several teachers and other participants described school infrastructure challenges that they say continue to affect teaching and learning.
“We are tired of shacks,” one participant said.
Another teacher described the reality behind the formal appearance of educators attending the workshop, saying: “As I’m wearing a suit, I was just coming from a shack’s lesson.”
Regional education officials reported in July 2025 that Omusati had 326 shacks as classrooms, alongside 258 prefabricated classrooms.
Teachers said the problem extends beyond classrooms, with some schools lacking proper ablution facilities and others struggling with buildings that become unusable during the rainy season.
One participant said a school established in 1992 still has no proper ablution facilities, forcing learners and teachers to relieve themselves outside.
Omwifi Combined School Principal Efraim Shooka stressed that schools continue to lose teaching time during the rainy season, despite the disruption being predictable.
He said learners and teachers are then expected to compensate for the days lost when heavy rains force schools to close.
Shooka also questioned the workload carried by junior-primary principals, saying some are expected to teach full-time while managing their schools.
“If the principal is teaching 100%, when are they supposed to do the principal’s work?” he asked.
Another school principal Selma Erastus said the infrastructure crisis also affects school administration.
She described her principal’s office as a storeroom containing sanitary pads, boxes of supplies and other items.
Erastus said schools also offer agriculture, life sciences and biology without laboratories or other facilities needed for practical learning.
She called for stronger cooperation between government and the private sector to give learners practical exposure, particularly in agriculture.
She further suggested that the National Youth Service (NYS) could provide young people with practical placements, while supermarkets should consider reserving shelf space for locally produced agricultural goods.
The concerns were consistent with challenges identified in Namibia’s APRM Country Review Report.
APRM chief analyst Astro Kabuku said the 2021 review identified 77 issues requiring government action and 177 indicators to measure implementation between 2022 and March 2027.
The review covered democratic and political governance, economic governance and management, corporate governance, and socio-economic development.
Kabuku said inadequate infrastructure development, including roads, was among the cross-cutting issues emerging from regional consultations.
He urged participants to speak openly about challenges, saying the APRM process was not intended to shame government institutions but to identify areas requiring improvement.
The slow pace of decentralisation was also identified as a cross-cutting concern. Kabuku said Namibia adopted decentralisation in 1997 but had so far decentralised only 42 government functions.
Former Omusati governor Erginus Endjala similarly raised concerns about centralised decision-making and its impact on regional service delivery, arguing that regional authorities need greater ability to respond to local problems.
For teachers, the governance debate is playing out in classrooms and school offices where basic infrastructure remains inadequate.
Questions sent to the ministry of education, innovation, youth,sports, arts and culture were not answered by the time of publication.
