Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture NAMIBIA · Education, Arts and Culture (MoEAC), contributed enormously to the production of this EMIS 2015 report by providing the data required

Ministry of Education, Arts and CultureNAMIBIA

Education Management Information System

© Education Management Information System (2015)

EMIS Education Statistics 2015Ministry of Education, Arts and CultureGovernment of the Republic of Namibia

Date of publication: December 2017

ISSN 2026-7533

Education Management Information System (EMIS)Email: [email protected]

Directorate of Planning and DevelopmentMinistry of Education, Arts and CultureGovernment Office Park, Luther Street, WindhoekPrivate Bag 13186, Windhoek, NamibiaTelephone (+264) (061) 293-3111 (main switchboard)Website www.moe.gov.na

AcknowledgementsThousands of teachers in state and private schools, and innumerable staff members of the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture (MoEAC), contributed enormously to the production of this EMIS 2015 report by providing the data required for the Ministry’s annual 15th School Day Census and Annual Education Census (AEC).

School principals, teachers, support staff, inspectors of education, education planners and staff in the regional offices, the Directorate of Adult Education (DAE) and the Directorate of National Examinations and Assessment (DNEA) assisted in collecting and verifying the data.

The staff of the EMIS Division in the MoEAC Directorate of Planning and Development acknowledge these contributions with gratitude.

We extend sincere gratitude also to the Namibia Statistics Agency for providing information on population projections.

FACTS AND FIGURES

Education Statistics in Namibia in 2015

Opuwo

Eenhana Katima Mulilo

Tsumeb

Otjiwarongo

SwakopmundWindhoek Gobabis

Mariental

Keetmanshoop

OshakatiOutapi Nkurenkuru

Rundu

OTJOZONDJUPA

OSHIKOTO KAVANGOWEST

ZAMBEZI

KUNENE

OMAHEKE

OMUSATI OHANGWENA

KAVANGOEAST

KHOMAS

ERONGO

HARDAP

//KHARAS

OSHANA

State PrivateNumber of schools Total 1,783 1,655 128

Primary 1,015 946 69Combined 552 506 46Secondary 205 192 13Other 11 11 0

Number of learners Total 675,405 634,270 41,135Pre-Primary 32,753 27,878 4,875Primary 443,249 418,181 25,068Secondary 196,013 184,942 11,071Other 3,390 3,269 121

Teacher qualifications

Total

Without teacher training

With teacher training

Total 27,990 3,135 24,855Less than Grade 12 581 243 338Grade 12 or 1-2 years’ tertiary 3,843 2,569 1,274More than 2 years’ tertiary 23,566 323 23,243

Learners per teacher Average learner : teacher ratio 24.1Number of class-rooms Total rooms 23,432

Permanent 20,439Prefabricated 1,322Traditional 1,494Hired 177

Facts and Figures i

ii EMIS Education Statistics 2015

FINDING YOUR WAY ............................................................................................................................................................................................... vi

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... I

REGIONAL SUMMARIES ........................................................................................................................................................................................ II

Chapter 1: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM ................................................................................................................1Table 1: Numbers of schools, learners, teachers and support staff ...................................................................................................... 2Table 2: Types of schools, and numbers of state and private schools .................................................................................................. 3Table 3: Numbers of schools offering various ranges of grades ........................................................................................................... 4Table 4: Number of schools offering each grade ................................................................................................................................... 5Table 5: Afternoon classes – enrolments and percentages of total enrolment in afternoon classes ..................................................6-7Table 6: Changes in the number of schools from 2009 to 2015 ............................................................................................................ 8

Chapter 2: ENROLMENTS .................................................................................................................................................................................9Table 7: Enrolment by school phases in each region .......................................................................................................................... 10Table 8: Percentage of female learners by school phases in each region .......................................................................................... 11Table 9: Number of class groups by school phases in each region .................................................................................................... 12Table 10: Average class size by school phases in each region .......................................................................................................... 13Table 11: Male and female enrolments in Grades 0 through 12 .....................................................................................................14-15Table 12: Enrolments and class groups in “other” grades ..............................................................................................................16-17Table 13: Enrolments in state and private schools .........................................................................................................................18-19Table 14: Enrolments in primary and junior secondary subjects ...................................................................................................20-21Table 15: Enrolments in senior secondary subjects .......................................................................................................................22-23Table 16: Home languages of learners ............................................................................................................................................... 24Table 17: Medium of instruction in Grades 1-3: schools, numbers of learners and class groups ....................................................... 25Table 18: Home languages and medium of instruction of learners in Grades 1-3 .........................................................................26-27Table 19: Changes in female and male enrolments from 2009 to 2015 .............................................................................................. 28Table 20: Changes in enrolments in different grades from 2009 to 2015 ............................................................................................ 29Table 21: Changes in enrolments in the regions from 2009 to 2015 ................................................................................................... 30

Chapter 3: THE FLOW OF LEARNERS ....................................................................................................................................................... 31Table 22: Pre-primary enrolment by region, age and gender .........................................................................................................32-33Table 23: Apparent intake rates of Grade 1 learners from 2009 to 2015 ............................................................................................ 34Table 24: Changes in the numbers of new Grade 1 entrants from 2009 to 2015 ............................................................................... 34Table 25: Ages of all learners .............................................................................................................................................................. 35Table 26: Distribution of learners by age and gender for each grade in 2015 .................................................................................... 36Table 27: Rates of enrolment of 6-year-olds to 18-year-olds .........................................................................................................37-38Table 28: Net and Gross Enrolment Ratios ......................................................................................................................................... 39Table 29: Numbers of new entrants, repeaters and re-entrants in Grades 1-12 ................................................................................. 40Table 30: Promotion, repetition and school-leaving rates in Grades 1-11 from 2014 to 2015 ............................................................. 41Table 31: Promotion, repetition and school leaving rates from 2008 to 2014 ..................................................................................... 42Table 32: Survival rates to Grades 2-12 from 2008 to 2014................................................................................................................ 43Table 33: Approximate numbers of learners who left school between 2008 and 2014 ....................................................................... 44

Contents iii

Chapter 4: NATIONAL EXAMINATIONS .................................................................................................................................................... 45Table 34: Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) examination results – full-time..................................................................................... 46Table 35: Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) examination results – part-time ................................................................................... 47Table 36: Percentages of candidates in point ranges in the Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) examination ................................... 48Table 37: Namibia Secondary School Certificate Ordinary Level (NSSC-O) results – full-time .......................................................... 49Table 38: Namibia Secondary School Certificate Higher Level (NSSC-H) results .............................................................................. 50

Chapter 5: TEACHERS .................................................................................................................................................................................... 51Table 39: The provision of teachers: numbers of teachers and learner : teacher ratios ...................................................................... 52Table 40: Professional and academic qualifications of female and male teachers ........................................................................53-54Table 41: Professional and academic qualifications of primary teachers ............................................................................................ 55Table 42: Professional and academic qualifications of secondary teachers ....................................................................................... 56Table 43: Qualifications of teachers in the subjects they taught ....................................................................................................57-58Table 44: Ages and professional and academic qualifications of teachers ......................................................................................... 59Table 45: Attrition rates of teachers from 2014 to 2015....................................................................................................................... 60Table 46: Transfer rates of teachers from 2014 to 2015 ..................................................................................................................... 61Table 47: Changes in the numbers of teachers and their professional qualifications from 2009 to 2015 ........................................... 62Table 48: Percentages of primary and secondary teachers qualified to teach from 2009 to 2015 ................................................63-64Table 49: Numbers of teachers from 2009 to 2015 ............................................................................................................................. 65Table 50: Learner : teacher ratios from 2009 to 2015 .......................................................................................................................... 66

Chapter 6: PHYSICAL FACILITIES ............................................................................................................................................................. 67Table 51: Numbers and structural types of teaching facilities ............................................................................................................. 68Table 52: Numbers and structural types of facilities for general use ................................................................................................... 69Table 53: Numbers and structural types of administrative facilities..................................................................................................... 70Table 54: Changes in the numbers of teaching and administrative facilities from 2009 to 2015 ...................................................71-72Table 55: Changes in the numbers and structural types of classrooms from 2009 to 2015 ............................................................... 73Table 56: Provision of sanitary facilities and water supply at schools ................................................................................................. 74Table 57: Provision of teachers’ housing and electricity and telephone supply at schools ................................................................. 75Table 58: Percentages of schools with sanitary facilities, basic services and teachers’ housing from 2010 to 2015 ....................76-77

Chapter 7: ADULT LEARNING ...................................................................................................................................................................... 78Table 59: National Literacy Programme enrolments and pass rates from 2009 to 2015 .................................................................... 79Table 60: Test results of the National Literacy Programme learners in 2015 ...................................................................................... 80

Chapter 8: EDUCATIONAL TRAINING SECTOR IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME (ETSIP) ....................................................... 81Table 61: Learners with disabilities by region and gender .............................................................................................................82-83Table 62: Learners with disabilities by grade and gender ................................................................................................................... 84Table 63: Enrolment of orphans and vulnerable children by region and gender ............................................................................85-86Table 64: Enrolment of orphans and vulnerable children by age group and gender ........................................................................... 87Table 65: Dropout from school by region, gender and reason .......................................................................................................88-89Table 66: Teacher mortality by age and reason .................................................................................................................................. 90Table 67: Teacher mortality by region and reason .............................................................................................................................. 90Table 68: Learner mortality by grade and reason................................................................................................................................ 91Table 69: Learner mortality by region and reason ............................................................................................................................... 92

iv EMIS Education Statistics 2015

Adult education (Tables 59, 60)Afternoon classes (Table 5)Ages of learners enrolments by age (Tables 25, 26) pre-primary enrolment by region, gender and age (Table 22) rates of enrolment by age (Table 27)Ages of teachers (Table 44)Attrition rates of teachers (Table 45)Buildings – see FacilitiesChanges over years apparent intake rates of Grade 1 learners (Table 23) enrolment (Tables 19, 20, 21) flow rates (Table 31) learner : teacher ratios (Table 50) literacy programme (Table 59) numbers of new Grade 1 entrants (Table 24) numbers of school leavers (Table 33) numbers of schools (Table 6) numbers of teachers (Table 49) percentages of teachers qualified to teach (Table 48) physical facilities (Tables 54, 55) promotion rates (Table 31) repetition rates (Table 31) qualifications of teachers (Table 47) sanitary facilities, housing and basic services (Table 58) school-leaving rates (Table 31) survival rates (Table 32)Class size average class sizes in school phases (Table 10) class sizes in grades other than Grades 1-12 (Table 12)Class groups average class sizes (Tables 10, 12) numbers in grades other than Grades 1-12 (Table 12) numbers in school phases (Table 9)

Classrooms – see FacilitiesDropout rates – see School-leaving ratesElectricity supply (Tables 57, 58)Enrolment by age (Tables 25, 26) changes over years (Tables 19, 20, 21) female and male enrolments (Tables 11, 12) home languages of learners (Table 16) in afternoon classes (Table 5) in Grades 1-12 (Table 11) in grades other than Grades 1-12 (Table 12) in school phases (Table 7) in state and private schools (Table 13) in subjects (Tables 14, 15) media of instruction in Grades 1-3 (Table 17) percent female (Table 1) percentages of females enrolled in school phases (Table 8) total numbers (Table 1)Enrolment rates Net and gross enrolment ratios (Table 28) rates of enrolment by age (Table 27)Entrants pre-primary enrolment by region, gender and age (Table 22) apparent intake rates of Grade 1 learners (Table 23) changes in the numbers of new Grade 1 entrants (Table 24) numbers of new entrants to different grades (Table 29)Examinations HIGCSE (Table 38) IGCSE (Table 37) Junior Secondary Certificate (Tables 34, 35, 36)Facilities basic services (water, electricity, telephone) (Tables 56, 57, 58) changes over years (Tables 54, 55, 58) numbers of facilities (Tables 51, 52, 53, 56, 57)

This list of topics is intended to assist readers in their searches for specific information. Regional comparisons are not explicitly mentioned in this list because most of the tables provide information for every region.

sanitary facilities (Tables 56, 58)Females – see GenderFlow rates changes in flow rates (Table 31) numbers of promotees, repeaters and re-entrants (Table 29) numbers of school leavers (Table 33) promotion, repetition and school-leaving rates (Table 30) survival rates (Table 32)Gender changes in female and male enrolments (Table 19) female and male enrolments by age (Table 26) female and male enrolments in grades (Table 11) female and male enrolments in ‘other’ grades (Table 12) female and male numbers of teachers (Table 40) percentages of females enrolled in school phases (Table 8) percentages of female teachers and support staff (Table 1) promotion, repetition and school-leaving rates (Table 30) rates of female and male enrolment by age (Table 27)Grades changes in enrolment (Table 20) enrolments in Grades 1-12 (Table 11) enrolments in grades other than Grades 1-12 (Table 12) numbers of schools offering each grade (Table 4) numbers of schools offering ranges of grades (Table 3)Gross enrolment ratio (Table 28)HIGCSE (Table 38)Home languages and media of instruction in Grades 1-3 (Table 18) of learners (Table 16)Housing (Tables 57, 58)IGCSE (Table 37)Intake ages of pre-primary enrolment by region and sex (Table 22) apparent intake rates of Grade 1 learners (Table 23)

changes in the numbers of new Grade 1 entrants (Table 24)Junior Secondary Certificate – see ExaminationsLanguage – home languages of learners (Table 16)Learner flow – see Flow ratesLearner : teacher ratio changes over years (Table 50) in school phases (Table 39)Learners – see EnrolmentLiteracy programme (Tables 59, 60)Medium of instruction and home languages of learners (Table 18) schools and enrolments in Grades 1-3 (Table 17)Mortality Teacher mortality by age and reason (Table 66) Teacher mortality by region and reason (Table 67) Learner mortality by grade and reason (Table 68) Learner mortality by region and reason (Table 69)Net enrolment ratio (Table 28)Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) Enrolment by gender and region (Table 63) Enrolment by gender and age group (Table 64)Phase – see School phasePhysical facilities – see FacilitiesPoints scored in the JSC examination (Table 36)Private schools enrolments (Table 13) numbers and types of schools (Table 2)Promotion rates changes in the promotion rates (Table 31) in different grades (Table 30)Qualifications of teachers – see TeachersRegional summaries (see Introduction)Repeaters – numbers in different grades (Table 29)Repetition rates

Finding Your Way v

vi EMIS Education Statistics 2015

changes over years (Table 31) in different grades (Table 30)School leavers (Table 33)School phase average class sizes (Table 10) enrolments in school phases (Table 7) enrolments in state and private schools (Table 13) numbers and qualifications of primary teachers (Table 41) numbers and qualifications of secondary teachers (Table 42) numbers and qualifications of subject teachers (Table 43) numbers of class groups (Table 9) numbers of schools offering ranges of grades (Table 3) numbers of teachers and learner : teacher ratios (Table 39) percentages of females enrolled (Table 8)School-leaving rates changes over years (Table 31) in different grades (Table 30)Schools changes in numbers (Table 6) numbers of schools (Table 1) numbers offering each grade (Table 4) numbers offering ranges of grades (Table 3) offering different media of instruction (Table 17) state and private schools (Table 2) types of schools (Table 2)Staff – numbers of teachers and support staff (Table 1)Staffing – see learner : teacher ratioStructures – see FacilitiesSubjects enrolments in subjects (Tables 14, 15) HIGCSE examination (Table 38) IGCSE examination (Table 37) Junior Secondary Certificate examination (Tables 34, 35) numbers and qualifications of teachers (Table 43)

Summary of regional statistics (see Introduction)Survival rates (Table 32)Symbols – see ExaminationsTeachers’ housing (Tables 57, 58)Teachers ages (Table 44) attrition rates (Table 45) changes in learner : teacher ratios (Table 50) changes in numbers (Table 49) changes in percentage qualified to teach (Table 48) changes of qualifications (Table 47) female and male numbers (Table 40) housing (Tables 57, 58) numbers and learner : teacher ratios (Table 39) numbers and qualifications of primary teachers (Table 41) numbers and qualifications of secondary teachers (Table 42) qualifications (Tables 40, 41, 42, 44, 47, 48) qualifications in subjects (Table 43) qualified to teach (Table 48) transfer rates (Table 46)Telephones (Tables 57, 58)Time series – see Changes over yearsTransfer rates of teachers (Table 46)Water supply (Tables 56, 58)Years – see Changes over years

Introduction I

This publication presents statistical information on education in schools in Namibia in 2015. Two school censuses are conducted each year, namely the 15th School Day Census, held on the fifteenth school day after the opening of the schools at the start of the new school year, and the Annual Education

Census (AEC), held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday when the schools open for the third term, usually in September each year. The 15th School Day Census is intended to provide information for operational and planning purposes, while the AEC provides information for monitoring the state of education from year to year. The majority of the figures presented in this report were collected in the 2015 AEC. The information reported in the AEC completed questionnaires is considered to have been a true representation on the day of the AEC census. The coverage of the 2015 AEC is considered to have been 100%, as all state schools and government-registered private schools submitted census returns. The Directorate of National Examinations and Assessment provided the Grade 10 and Grade 12 examination results, and the Directorate of Adult Basic Education provided the Adult Basic Education test results for 2015. Only statistics provided by state schools and the private schools registered with the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture (MoEAC) are recorded herein.

After publishing education statistics for the period 1992-2008, the EMIS introduced several changes to the format of these reports, which readers must bear in mind when comparing statistics of different years. The most important difference is any change of regional boundaries, as reflected in the statistics since 2003. Statistics reported for earlier years have been recalculated for this report in terms of the new delimitation of regions effected in 2013. Most of the tables in earlier reports have been retained in this report with no modification of their format. Some tables are no longer included, a few have been modified, and several new tables have been introduced to reflect, among other things, most of the Education for All (EFA) indicators, and indicators for the Educational Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP) and National Development Plans (NDPs). It is also important to remind the reader that the EMIS reports since 2010 no longer feature the ‘pseudo region’ previously referred to as “Head Office”, under which the data for Special Schools was included. The data for these schools is now reported under the Education Regions in which these schools are located. Therefore, in some tables ‘data blank’ is observed, while in other tables the Head Office region has been completely removed.

II EMIS Education Statistics 2015

Senior Secondary (Grades 11-12). The tables in this report are divided and subdivided to reflect these four phases. The following additional grades/classes are offered at certain schools:

Special Classes: Single classes provided at many ordinary schools for children who have learning difficulties.

Special Grades: Grades with a curriculum adapted for the purposes of Special Schools.

Classes for children with disabilities: Offered at only 2 of the 11 Special Schools.

Grade 0 (Pre-Primary): This grade was added into the school curriculum and is now reported separately from “Other Grades”.

Grade 13: A level offered after Grade 12 in one private school in the city of Windhoek, namely the Hochschulreifeprüfung (Abitur).

There are many ways to provide education statistics, and the criteria used for these EMIS reports are based largely on the perceived demands expressed by a variety of users through telephonic, email and walk-in enquiries over the years. The graphs and narrative comments accompanying the tables are intended to provide user-friendly guidance for interpreting the statistics. The comments are not definitive, and the interpretation and use of the statistics remain the responsibility of the users. Copies of the questionnaires used for the Annual Education Census and 15th School Day Census could be helpful to readers who would like to know the exact nature of the questions used to collect the data.

It is important to recognise that the statistics in this publication are primarily reflective of Namibia’s formal schooling system, as provided for in state and private schools. The following seven pages provide summaries of the key features of this system in each of the 14 geographical/political regions.

We trust that the data in this report will greatly assist education planners in optimising the human and material resource allocations in Namibia’s Education Sector towards truly inclusive Education for All.

The statistics published in this report are intended for a wide readership on education and those requiring specific information for referencing. Much of the material herein is also intended to reflect the performance of Namibia’s education system. In this regard, the measures or indicators broadly relate to the MoEAC’s goals in providing inclusive, quality education in an equitable, efficient and democratic way. The statistics presented here can be compared with indicators in previous reports, and comparisons can be made between the different geographical/administrative regions, of which there are 14:

//KharasErongoHardapKavango EastKavango WestKhomasKuneneOhangwenaOmahekeOmusatiOshanaOshikotoOtjozondjupaZambezi

Following the new delimitation of regions in 2013, the Ministry changed the Education Regions to accord with the geographical/administrative regions, hence there are now 14 Education Regions. As noted on the previous page, the data on the 11 Special Schools for children who have special educational needs is now distributed by Education Region rather than under the regional category previously called “Head Office”.

The largest portion of Namibia’s schooling system fits into Grades 1-12, and this range of grades is subdivided into four phases: Lower Primary (Grades 1-4), Upper Primary (Grades 5-7), Junior Secondary (Grades 8-10) and

OTJOZONDJUPA

OSHIKOTO WESTKUNENE

OMAHEKE

OMUSATI OHANGWENA

EAST

KHOMAS

ERONGO

HARDAP

//KHARAS

OSHANA

KAVANGO

Regional Summaries III

Key education statistics in each of the 14 administrative regions have been compiled in this section for quick reference. Other

regional statistics and indicators are included in various tables in this report. Statistics pertaining to the Education Regions are also reported in the tables. All statistics in these regional profiles include state and private schools.

The numbers of schools are broken down by primary, combined, secondary and “other” schools. A very small number of schools – mostly schools for learners who have special educational needs – are grouped under “other”.

Under the heading “number of learners”, the category “other” includes all grades and courses other than Grades 0-12. Such other grades and courses include, for example, special classes.

The numbers of teachers were reported in terms of their qualifi-cations. A distinction was also made between teachers who had no teacher training and those who had been trained. The average learner : teacher ratio was calculated for each region. Note that the calculation method used for these “Summary” tables was not the same as the one used for Table 39, so the results are not the same for some regions. Formulae used in these “Summary” tables take all teachers in the region into consideration, while the one used in Table 39 takes various categories of teachers into consideration.

Regarding physical facilities, the numbers of classrooms include specialist rooms, laboratories and workshops as ‘teaching rooms’ – referred to in the regional-summary tables as “class-rooms”. These numbers are reported according to the type of structure, the categories being “permanent”, “prefabricated”, “traditional” and “hired”. The “traditional” category includes a variety of structure types, such as stick-and-mud, metal-sheet and tents. Facilities hired from a church or private organisation, for example, are grouped under “hired”.

IV EMIS Education Statistics 2015

State PrivateNumber of schools Total 63 47 16Type of school Primary 37 29 8

Combined 12 5 7Secondary 14 13 1Other 1 1 -

Number of learners Total 36,626 32,211 4,415School phase Pre-Primary 1,722 1,318 404

Primary 23,715 21,156 2,559Secondary 10,229 8,798 1,431Other 960 939 21

Teachers

Total



Total 1,469 102 1,367Qualification Less than Grade 12 21 11 10

Grade 12 or 1-2 years’ tertiary 138 76 62More than 2 years’ tertiary 1,310 15 1,295

Learners per teacher Average learner : teacher ratio 24.9Number of class-rooms Total rooms 1,244Structure Permanent 1,139

Prefabricated 97Traditional 4Hired 4

ErongoState Private

Number of schools Total 50 40 10Type of school Primary 28 24 4

Combined 13 8 5Secondary 9 8 1Other 0 - -


Primary 13,648 11,729 1,919Secondary 6,069 5,424 645Other 57 50 7

Teachers

Total



Total 919 172 747Qualification Less than Grade 12 34 25 9

Grade 12 or 1-2 years’ tertiary 184 132 52More than 2 years’ tertiary 700 15 686

Learners per teacher Average learner : teacher ratio 23.1Number of class-rooms Total rooms 778Structure Permanent 684


//Kharas

Regional Summaries V



Number of learners Total 23,321 22,651 670School phase Pre-Primary 1,397 1,351 46

Primary 15,510 15,125 385Secondary 6,103 5,906 197Other 311 269 42

Teachers

Total







HardapState Private


Combined 35 32 3Secondary 9 8 1Other - - -


Primary 37,155 36,585 570Secondary 13,898 13,578 320Other 159 159 -

Teachers

Total







Kavango East

VI EMIS Education Statistics 2015





Teachers

Total





Learners per teacher Average learner : teacher ratio 25.6Number of class-rooms Total rooms 1,157Structure Permanent 916


Kavango WestState Private


Combined 15 1 14Secondary 29 26 3Other 6 6 0

Number of learners Total 81,403 66,483 14,920School phase Pre-Primary 3,951 1,982 1,969

Primary 51,156 42,768 8,388Secondary 25,548 21,036 4,512Other 748 697 51

Teachers

Total







Khomas

Regional Summaries VII





Teachers

Total



Total 1,130 231 899Qualification Less than Grade 12 37 15 22




KuneneState Private




Primary 62,965 61,077 1,888Secondary 29,805 29,333 472Other - - -

Teachers

Total







Ohangwena

VIII EMIS Education Statistics 2015




Primary 15,022 13,670 1,352Secondary 4,664 4,032 632Other 26 26 0

Teachers

Total







OmahekeState Private





Teachers

Total







Omusati

Regional Summaries IX




Primary 30,496 28,230 2,266Secondary 18,272 18,078 194Other 551 551 -

Teachers

Total







OshanaState Private




Primary 41,432 38,624 2,808Secondary 19,844 19,016 828Other 12 12 -

Teachers

Total







Oshikoto

X EMIS Education Statistics 2015





Teachers

Total







OtjozondjupaState Private


Combined 44 44 -Secondary 11 10 1Other 0 - -



Teachers

Total







Zambezi

Chapter 1: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM 1

Chapter 1 introduces the basic features and dimensions of the school system in Namibia. The tables provide information on the numbers of schools, learners, teachers, other school staff, the types of schools, phases of schooling and grades

provided, governance of schools, afternoon-session teaching and changes in the number of schools over the last few years.

A feature that must be recognised is that many schools in Namibia do not follow the “normal” phases or divisions between primary schooling (Grades 1-7) and secondary schooling (Grades 8-12). The term “combined” school is used to describe the schools that offer primary and secondary grades. Extending primary schools to Grade 10, or even Grade 12, makes it possible to provide secondary education in locations where a separate secondary school is not feasible due to small numbers of potential learners. Combined schools are an important element of the Government’s strategy to improve access to education, especially in rural areas. In contrast, schools starting with a grade other than the first grade of a phase, or going up to a grade which is not the end of a school phase, may cause problems for learners’ transition to the next grade after they have completed the highest grade of the school they are in. This is not always the case, for example in schools which annually extend the range of grades that they offer, but isolated cases do exist.

There are several grades and levels of education provided in schools which do not fit into the normal Grade 1-12 curriculum. These have been described in the Introduction to this report. In some tables these are aggregated as “Other Grades”. In the previous reports, pre-primary was reported on under “Other Grades”, but since the Ministry’s decision to include pre-primary as part of the Primary phase, pre-primary is now reported on independently and separately from “Other Grades”.

This chapter also introduces the concept of “average annual growth rate” to describe rates of changes over several years. This measure gives a constant annual percentage change (increase or decrease) that would have resulted in the actual change between the first and last years. For example, the total number of schools changed from 1, 677 in 2009 to 1,783 in 2015. Had the number in 2009 changed each year at the average growth rate of 1.02%, there would also have been a total of 1,783 schools in Namibia by 2015. The number of schools did not change every year exactly and consistently by 1.02%, but the average growth rate describes a change from 1, 677 in 2009 to 1,783 in 2015.

Quite a number of schools, especially very small schools and some private schools, were closed down during the year under review, and a few other schools were combined to form single larger schools, which might account for a reduction in the total number of schools.

Chapter 1: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM

2 EMIS Education Statistics 2015

Table 1: Numbers of schools, learners, teachers and support staff

RegionSchools Learners Teachers Support staff

Total Total % Female Total % Female Total % Female//Kharas 50 21,216 51.0 919 70.5 232 68.1Erongo 63 36,626 51.4 1,469 75.0 398 62.8

Hardap 57 23,321 50.3 948 65.0 266 66.9Kavango East 158 53,155 49.7 1,930 49.8 306 72.5Kavango West 176 36,250 48.5 1,417 46.7 196 74.0Khomas 107 81,403 51.6 3,326 75.1 795 60.5Kunene 68 25,882 49.8 1,130 55.0 195 66.7Ohangwena 252 96,346 50.0 3,866 63.4 633 65.4Omaheke 43 20,822 50.1 819 64.0 208 60.1Omusati 276 88,498 49.6 3,962 67.1 612 77.6Oshana 138 52,002 50.7 2,297 70.1 438 70.3Oshikoto 212 64,710 49.4 2,739 64.1 533 62.7Otjozondjupa 76 41,705 50.7 1,565 68.4 287 65.5Zambezi 107 33,469 49.4 1,603 58.4 324 83.0National 1,783 675,405 50.2 27,990 64.7 5,423 67.8

Table 1 shows the number of schools, learners, teachers and support staff per region in Namibia in 2015, as also shown in Figures 1a, 1b and 1c. The number of support staff includes secretaries, cleaners and other non-teaching staff, but excludes hostel staff.

Figure 1a shows the number of schools in each region. Omusati had the highest number of schools (276) and Omaheke the lowest number (43).

Figure 1b shows the number of learners per region. Ohangwena had the highest number of learners (96,346) and Omaheke the lowest number (20,822).

Figure 1c shows the number of teachers per region. The number of teachers comprises staff in all teaching positions, including principals and staff in other promotion posts. Omusati had the highest number of teachers (3,962) and Omaheke the lowest number (819).

Although Ohangwena had 7,848 more learners than Omusati, it had 96 fewer teachers than Omusati.

Figure 1a: Number of schools in each region

Figure 1b: Number of learners in each region

Figure 1c: Number of teachers in each region


Namibia’s schools are not strictly divided into primary and secondary schools. Several factors, foremost among them the need to provide secondary grades in sparsely populated areas, led to the creation of combined schools, offering primary and secondary grades. The term “Combined School” thus refers to schools that offer both the Primary and Secondary phases of schooling.

In 2015, most schools offered the ‘ordinary’ curriculum. Eleven schools, labelled “Other”, provided for children with special educational needs who could not be taken up in the mainstream schooling system or in schools that emphasise pre-vocational subjects.

Private schools accounted for a relatively small percentage (7%) of the total number of schools in 2015. The regions with the highest numbers of private schools were //Kharas, Khomas, Erongo, Oshana, Oshikoto and Otjozondjupa. Together, private schools in these regions accounted for 90 or 70.3% of the country’s 128 private schools.

Table 2: Types of schools, and numbers of state and private schools

RegionTotal Primary Combined Secondary Other

Total State Private Total State Private Total State Private Total State Private Total State Private//Kharas 50 40 10 28 24 4 13 8 5 9 8 1 - - -Erongo 63 47 16 37 29 8 12 5 7 14 13 1 - - -Hardap 57 53 4 39 37 2 8 6 2 9 9 - 1 1 -Kavango East 158 152 6 114 112 2 35 32 3 9 8 1 - - -Kavango West 176 175 1 147 147 - 24 24 - 5 4 1 - - -Khomas 107 75 32 57 42 15 15 1 14 29 26 3 6 6 -Kunene 68 64 4 48 45 3 13 12 1 6 6 - 1 1 -Ohangwena 252 245 7 100 94 6 133 133 - 19 18 1 - - -Omaheke 43 37 6 31 28 3 3 1 2 9 8 1 - - -Omusati 276 270 6 131 129 2 116 113 3 28 27 1 1 1 -Oshana 138 128 10 64 57 7 50 47 3 23 23 - 1 1 -Oshikoto 212 201 11 118 112 6 75 71 4 19 18 1 - - -Otjozondjupa 76 65 11 49 41 8 11 9 2 15 14 1 1 1 -Zambezi 107 103 4 52 49 3 44 44 - 11 10 1 - - -National 1,783 1,655 128 1,015 946 69 552 506 46 205 192 13 11 11 -


Schools in Namibia offer various ranges of grades. The numbers of schools that offered specific ranges of grades in 2015 are tabulated in Table 3 for the ‘ordinary’ grades. The ranges extend from the grade numbers in the first column to the grade numbers heading the respective columns. For example, 434 schools offered Grades 0-7 and 135 schools offered Grades 8-12. (Grade 0 refers to pre-primary.) Two schools offered none of the ‘ordinary’ grades. These are schools for children with learning impairments.

Although the number of schools offering Grades 1 to 7 appears to have declined in comparison to the earlier reports, this is not actually the case, because schools that started offering pre-primary grades are now reported in the range of schools offering pre-primary to Grade 7, hence the increase in that range.

The progression of learners who completed the highest grade of their school to a school offering the next grade may be hampered if the ranges of grades that schools offer do not coincide with the beginning and end of a school phase. This was the case in 13% of all schools, shown graphically in Figure 3. Several of these schools would have been in the process of adding grades annually, progressing towards being ’in phase’.

Figure 3: Percentage of schools which offer complete and incomplete phases

Table 3: Numbers of schools offering various ranges of grades

Lowest Grade

Offered

Total starting with lowest grade

Highest Grade Offered

Grade0

Lower Primary Upper Primary Junior Secondary Senior SecondaryGrade

13OtherGrade

1Grade

2Grade

3Grade

4Grade

5Grade

6Grade

7Grade

8Grade

9Grade

10Grade

11Grade

12Total 1,783 1 8 42 36 252 22 23 585 19 31 506 5 178 1 74Pre-primary 1,061 1 3 4 7 78 11 12 434 14 22 387 1 27 1 59Grade 1 492 0 5 38 29 174 11 11 147 5 8 47 1 12 0 4Grade 5 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 9 0 0 0 4Grade 6 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0Grade 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0Grade 8 202 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 61 3 135 0 2Grade 11 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0Other 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5


Table 4: Number of schools offering each grade

RegionPrimary Grades Secondary Grades

Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12//Kharas 41 41 41 41 40 40 40 19 19 19 11 10Erongo 46 47 47 46 43 42 45 25 24 24 18 19Hardap 46 45 45 45 45 46 46 17 17 17 7 7Kavango East 145 144 132 126 78 76 72 44 43 41 13 12Kavango West 168 168 150 134 75 73 71 29 29 28 7 7Khomas 74 71 71 70 72 72 72 47 46 45 39 39Kunene 60 60 59 58 55 54 54 19 19 15 6 6Ohangwena 233 231 229 227 207 202 201 150 143 134 12 12Omaheke 34 34 34 34 33 33 32 12 12 12 6 5Omusati 242 242 240 237 196 194 193 141 137 130 16 15Oshana 112 112 110 109 96 94 92 73 72 72 13 13Oshikoto 194 192 188 185 150 146 140 94 90 83 16 16Otjozondjupa 60 59 59 57 56 53 50 26 26 25 13 14Zambezi 96 96 96 95 79 78 77 55 55 55 10 10National 1,551 1,542 1,501 1,464 1,225 1,203 1,185 751 732 700 187 185

Other Grades

Region Pre-Primary

Grade 13

Elementary Vocational

Intermediate Vocational

Advanced Vocational

Special Classes

Special Grade 6

Special Grade 7

Special Grade 8

Special Grade 9

Special Grade 10

Special Grade 11

Special Grade 12 Handicapped

//Kharas 35 - - - - 4 - - - - - - - -Erongo 39 - - - - 9 1 - 1 1 1 1 1 -Hardap 38 - - 1 - 16 1 - - - - - - -Kavango East 67 - - - - 3 1 1 - - - - - 1Kavango West 76 - - - - 1 - - 1 1 1 - - -Khomas 54 1 2 2 - 10 2 2 2 1 - - 1 2Kunene 56 - - - - 2 - - - - - - - -Ohangwena 154 - - - - - - - - - - - - -Omaheke 31 - - - - 2 - - - - - - - -Omusati 137 - - - - - - - 2 2 1 - - -Oshana 92 - - - - 1 - - 1 1 1 1 1 -Oshikoto 135 - - - - 1 - - - - - - - -Otjozondjupa 51 - 1 1 - 11 - - - - - - - -Zambezi 96 - - - - 1 - - - - - - - -National 1,061 1 3 4 - 61 5 3 7 6 4 2 3 3

Table 4 shows that there is a big difference (434) in the number of schools offering Grade 7 (last grade of Primary) compared to the number offering Grade 8. This is an indication that a number of learners either repeat Grade 7 or simply fall out of the system at the end of Grade 7, meaning that a large number do not make it to the Secondary phase. There is similarly a big difference (545) between the number of schools offering Grade 10 and the num-ber offering Grade 12. This is one of the indications that the num-ber of learners decreases at each higher grade.


Table 5: Afternoon classes – enrolments and percentages of total enrolment in afternoon classes

RegionGrades

Total Grade 0 Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12 Other//Kharas Enrolment - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

% of total - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Erongo Enrolment 147 - - 109 38 - - - - - - - - - -

% of total 0.4% - - 2.7% 1.1% - - - - - - - - - -Hardap Enrolment - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

% of total - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Kavango East Enrolment 17 - - 17 - - - - - - - - - - -

% of total 0.0% - - 0.3% - - - - - - - - - - -Kavango West Enrolment - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

% of total - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Khomas Enrolment 454 - - 37 189 188 - - - - 40 - - - -

% of total 0.6% - - 0.5% 2.5% 2.7% - - - - 0.7% - - - -Kunene Enrolment 196 27 27 40 47 55 - - - - - - - - -

% of total 0.8% 1.6% 0.7% 1.3% 1.6% 2.1% - - - - - - - - -Ohangwena Enrolment 52 17 - - - - - - - - 35 - - - -

% of total 0.1% 0.5% - - - - - - - - 0.4% - - - -Omaheke Enrolment 61 - - 61 - - - - - - - - - - -

% of total 0.3% - - 2.6% - - - - - - - - - - -Omusati Enrolment 32 - - - - - - - - 32 - - - - -

% of total 0.0% - - - - - - - - 0.3% - - - - -Oshana Enrolment 43 - - - - - - - - - 43 - - - -

% of total 0.1% - - - - - - - - - 1.0% - - - -Oshikoto Enrolment 80 - 20 - 27 - 33 - - - - - - - -

% of total 0.1% - 0.3% - 0.5% - 0.5% - - - - - - - -Otjozondjupa Enrolment 38 - 38 - - - - - - - - - - - -

% of total 0.1% - 0.7% - - - - - - - - - - - -Zambezi Enrolment 33 - - - - 33 - - - - - - - - -

% of total 0.1% - - - - 1.2% - - - - - - - - -National Enrolment 1,153 44 85 264 301 276 33 - - 32 118 - - - -

% of total 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% 0.4% 0.5% 0.4% 0.1% - - 0.0% 0.2% - - - -


Afternoon teaching allowed the use of classrooms twice per day, effectively doubling their capacity. It has to be noted that there are insufficient numbers of classrooms in the country, a problem which afternoon classes cannot solve entirely. The long-term solution remains building an adequate number of classrooms. In the meantime, alternatives to afternoon classes are community-built classrooms. Where this is not possible, overcrowding of classrooms and limiting of access to education will still occur. Although none of these alternatives are desirable, they cannot be avoided as long as resources for building classrooms are limited.

In most regions with a substantial percentage of learners in afternoon classes, the percentage of learners in these classes was the highest in Grades 2-4. There were no learners in afternoon classes reported beyond Grade 9 in 2015.

A total of 1,153 learners attended afternoon classes in 2015. The overall percentage of learners in afternoon classes has decreased over time, and now stands at a mere 0.2% of all learners. This might indicate a success in the government’s bid to provide classrooms, combined with the community’s effort to assist in building traditional/temporary classrooms to accommodate learners. Although allowing for maximum utilisation of classroom spaces, afternoon classes are particularly difficult to implement in areas where children have to walk long distances to school, and time spent on teaching and learning might be compromised.

The majority of learners in afternoon classes in 2015 were in the Primary phase, especially in Grades 2-4, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Percentage of learners in afternoon classes (nationally)


Table 6: Changes in the number of schools from 2009 to 2015 Figure 6a: Numbers of schools in 2009-2015

Figure 6b: Percentage increase in the number of schools in each region from 2009 to 2015

Region

Year Average annual growth

rate from 2009 to

2015

Percentage change

from 2009 to 2015

Percentage change

from 2014 to 2015

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

//Kharas 48 49 49 49 48 49 50 0.7% 4.2% 2.0%Erongo 62 62 63 66 64 61 63 0.3% 1.6% 3.3%Hardap 56 56 56 55 55 56 57 0.3% 1.8% 1.8%Kavango East 152 153 152 152 153 153 158 0.6% 3.9% 3.3%Kavango West 172 172 170 171 172 172 176 0.4% 2.3% 2.3%Khomas 99 101 100 100 103 106 107 1.3% 8.1% 0.9%Kunene 54 55 55 60 63 63 68 3.9% 25.9% 7.9%Ohangwena 238 239 242 243 243 249 252 1.0% 5.9% 1.2%Omaheke 41 41 41 42 42 43 43 0.8% 4.9% 0.0%Omusati 270 274 274 274 275 274 276 0.4% 2.2% 0.7%Oshana 132 135 135 137 139 137 138 0.7% 4.5% 0.7%Oshikoto 191 192 196 200 202 203 212 1.8% 11.0% 4.4%Otjozondjupa 65 70 70 72 72 73 76 2.6% 16.9% 4.1%Zambezi 97 100 100 102 102 106 107 1.6% 10.3% 0.9%National 1,677 1,697 1,703 1,723 1,733 1,745 1,783 1.03% 6.3% 2.2%

Table 6 shows that the total number of schools in Namibia increased from 1,677 in 2009 to 1,783 in 2015, representing a percentage change of 6.3% in that period, as Figure 6a shows. Figure 6b shows the percentage growth per region from 2009 to 2015. Kunene, Otjozondjupa and Oshikoto saw a relatively high increase in the number of schools from 2009 to 2015.

Chapter 2: ENROLMENTS 9

Chapter 2 focuses on the learner. The chapter begins with a summary of the numbers of learners in each phase in each region. The average sizes of class groups, the numbers

of classes and the percentages of female learners are provided. Enrolments of female and male learners are reported for each grade. The numbers of learners enrolled in private and government schools in different phases are provided for each region.

Two tables provide information on the numbers of learners enrolled for different subjects. Although curricula prescribe that a number of core subjects be taught in each phase, a great variety of other subjects are also taught. This means that there is scope for errors being made in coding the subjects listed by teachers on the Annual Education Census forms. In addition there is some uncertainty about the correct and appropriate naming of various subjects as new subjects are introduced and others are phased out. These methodological limitations notwithstanding, the tables provide useful information on the numbers of learners taught different subjects in 2015.

The Annual Education Census (AEC) questionnaire lists a number of languages that teachers can select in reporting the medium of instruction and the home languages of learners. The responses to these questions provide information on the numbers of learners with different home languages in different grades, the numbers of learners and class groups being taught in different mother tongues in Grades 1-3, and the degree of match between home language and medium of instruction.

Finally, comparative information is provided for the last seven years (2009-2015) to examine how enrolments have changed in each grade and phase, and in the different regions. Rates of growth over the same period are also compared for males and females in each region.

Class groups can be counted in two ways in multigrade groups, i.e. groups comprising learners from two or more grades: (1) each grade group in the multigrade group can be counted as one; or (2) the whole multigrade group can be seen as a single group. Both methods have their justification: the first method gives the correct number of groups in each grade, and the second gives the correct number of groups of learners being taught together. The method employed in each of the tables reflecting class groups has been elaborated in the text adjacent to the tables.

Chapter 2: ENROLMENTS


Table 7 shows the numbers of learners enrol-led in each school phase in each region in 2015.

Figure 7a shows the total numbers enrolled per school phase in each region, and Figure 7b shows the percentage of enrolment per phase per region.

Figure 7a indicates that Primary enrolment was by far the highest in all regions, and Pre-Primary was the lowest in all regions.

Overall, over two-thirds (65.6%) of Namibia’s learners were enrol led in the Primary phase, nearly a third (29.0%) in the Secondary phase and only 4.8% in the Pre-Primary phase.

Note that the enrolment value for Khomas Region under “Other” represents 19 learners who were in Grade 13 in 2015. These learners are not included in the “Senior Secondary” category.

Region Total Pre-PrimaryPrimary Secondary

OtherSubtotal Primary

Lower Primary

Upper Primary

Subtotal Secondary

Junior Secondary

Senior Secondary

//Kharas 21,216 1,442 13,648 8,145 5,503 6,069 4,928 1,141 57Erongo 36,626 1,722 23,715 14,412 9,303 10,229 7,876 2,353 960Hardap 23,321 1,397 15,510 9,367 6,143 6,103 5,038 1,065 311Kavango East 53,155 1,943 37,155 24,032 13,123 13,898 11,172 2,726 159Kavango West 36,250 1,925 26,816 18,010 8,806 7,475 6,398 1,077 34Khomas 81,403 3,951 51,156 30,892 20,264 25,529 18,795 6,734 767Kunene 25,882 1,677 19,314 12,648 6,666 4,855 4,179 676 36Ohangwena 96,346 3,576 62,965 37,812 25,153 29,805 24,185 5,620 -Omaheke 20,822 1,110 15,022 9,593 5,429 4,664 3,973 691 26Omusati 88,498 3,371 56,783 33,736 23,047 28,031 21,661 6,370 313Oshana 52,002 2,683 30,496 17,640 12,856 18,272 13,134 5,138 551Oshikoto 64,710 3,422 41,432 24,775 16,657 19,844 14,988 4,856 12Otjozondjupa 41,705 2,250 29,104 18,442 10,662 10,180 8,550 1,630 171Zambezi 33,469 2,284 20,133 12,298 7,835 11,040 8,501 2,539 12National 675,405 32,753 443,249 271,802 171,447 195,994 153,378 42,616 3,409

Figure 7a: Total enrolment by school phases in each region Figure 7b: Percentage of enrolment by school phases in each region

Table 7: Enrolment by school phases in each region


Region Total Pre-Primary Primary Lower Primary

Upper Primary Secondary Junior

SecondarySenior

Secondary Other

//Kharas 51.0% 53.4% 49.9% 49.6% 50.4% 53.0% 52.6% 54.6% 42.1%Erongo 51.4% 51.8% 50.0% 50.1% 50.0% 54.2% 53.6% 56.4% 52.4%Hardap 50.3% 49.7% 49.7% 49.6% 49.9% 52.4% 52.2% 53.2% 38.6%Kavango East 49.7% 52.9% 49.3% 48.9% 49.9% 50.3% 51.2% 46.6% 43.4%Kavango West 48.5% 50.8% 48.3% 47.4% 50.2% 48.8% 49.9% 42.3% 38.2%Khomas 51.6% 50.9% 50.6% 50.5% 50.8% 54.3% 53.2% 57.1% 37.5%Kunene 49.8% 50.3% 49.4% 49.8% 48.7% 51.4% 52.1% 46.7% 38.9%Ohangwena 50.0% 50.2% 48.5% 48.0% 49.1% 53.0% 52.8% 54.1% N/A*Omaheke 50.1% 48.7% 49.7% 49.3% 50.5% 52.0% 51.6% 54.1% 26.9%Omusati 49.6% 49.9% 48.0% 47.8% 48.3% 52.7% 52.0% 55.1% 48.6%Oshana 50.7% 51.0% 49.3% 49.8% 48.8% 53.0% 51.9% 55.6% 48.6%Oshikoto 49.4% 50.2% 47.7% 47.0% 48.7% 53.0% 52.7% 53.8% 25.0%Otjozondjupa 50.7% 50.2% 49.8% 49.5% 50.2% 53.9% 54.1% 53.0% 36.3%Zambezi 49.4% 51.6% 48.7% 48.9% 48.6% 50.0% 49.7% 51.0% 33.3%National 50.2% 50.8% 49.1% 48.8% 49.4% 52.6% 52.3% 53.9% 44.8%

* Ohangwena Region has only grades Pre-Primary to Grade 12, hence “Other” is not applicable.

Table 8 shows the percentage of female learners by school phase per region. Overall, there was a good balance between female and male enrolments in 2015, despite some regional variation, especially if we compare the different phases. Nationally, the Lower Primary phase had the lowest percentage of female learners, at 48.8%, which gradually grew to 49.4% in Upper Primary. This gradual growth trend continued as female learners progressed through the schooling system, to reach 52.3% in the Junior Secondary phase and a peak of 53.9% in Senior Secondary. This table also shows that there were more female learners than male learners in the Secondary phase in all regions except Kavango West (females 48.8%). Please note that in Khomas there were 16 female learners in Grade 13 who are included under “Other”.

Figure 8: Percentage of female learners by school phases in each region

Table 8: Percentage of female learners by school phases in each region


Region Total Pre-PrimaryPrimary Secondary

OtherSubtotal Primary

Lower Primary

Upper Primary

Subtotal Secondary

Junior Secondary

Senior Secondary

//Kharas 771 63 487 289 198 216 170 46 5Erongo 1154 79 745 459 286 297 229 68 33Hardap 834 71 541 321 220 200 165 35 22Kavango East 1620 82 1146 786 360 380 305 75 12Kavango West 1290 84 995 716 279 207 174 33 4Khomas 2589 157 1533 901 632 834 598 236 65Kunene 947 80 715 484 231 150 128 22 2Ohangwena 3165 161 2073 1242 831 931 782 149 0Omaheke 668 50 470 297 173 146 121 25 2Omusati 3169 150 2071 1237 834 937 768 169 11Oshana 1837 119 1094 645 449 605 456 149 19Oshikoto 2287 153 1490 915 575 643 510 133 1Otjozondjupa 1290 93 871 547 324 310 259 51 16Zambezi 1178 116 741 457 284 320 247 73 1National 22,799 1,458 14,972 9,296 5,676 6,176 4,912 1,264 193

Table 9 shows the number of class groups per school phase for each region.

The total number of class groups reported for 2015 was 22,799, with 14,972 in the Primary phase and 6,176 in the Secondary phase.

Figure 9 shows the percentages of class groups in the different school phases in each region. For instance, Kavango West had a relatively high percentage (59%) of class groups in the Lower Primary phase, and much lower percentages in the other phases, i.e. Upper Primary and Junior and Senior Secondary.

Figure 9: Percentage of class groups by school phases in each region

Table 9: Number of class groups by school phases in each region


Table 10 shows the average class size by school phase in each region. The average class size for each phase was calculated by dividing the number of learners in the particular school phase by the number of classes in that phase. The average class size for the region was calculated by dividing the total number of learners by the total number of class groups in the region, as graphically illustrated by Figure 10.

We can observe that class sizes tend to be smaller in the Pre-Primary phase, with a national average size of 22.5, and then they gra du ally increase to 29.6 in Primary and 31.7 in Secondary. Kavango East has the largest average class size (32.8) while Kunene has the smallest (27.3). Note that for Khomas, the category “Other” includes Grade 13 learners.

Figure 10: Average class size in each region

Regions Total Pre-PrimaryPrimary Secondary

OtherSubtotalPrimary

Lower Primary

Upper Primary

SubtotalSecondary

Junior Secondary

Senior Secondary

//Kharas 27.5 22.9 28.0 28.2 27.8 28.1 29.0 24.8 11.4Erongo 31.7 21.8 31.8 31.4 32.5 34.4 34.4 34.6 29.1Hardap 28.0 19.7 28.7 29.2 27.9 30.5 30.5 30.4 14.1Kavango East 32.8 23.7 32.4 30.6 36.5 36.6 36.6 36.3 13.3Kavango West 28.1 22.9 27.0 25.2 31.6 36.1 36.8 32.6 8.5Khomas 31.4 25.2 33.4 34.3 32.1 30.6 31.4 28.5 11.8Kunene 27.3 21.0 27.0 26.1 28.9 32.4 32.6 30.7 18.0Ohangwena 30.4 22.2 30.4 30.4 30.3 32.0 30.9 37.7 -Omaheke 31.2 22.2 32.0 32.3 31.4 31.9 32.8 27.6 13.0Omusati 27.9 22.5 27.4 27.3 27.6 29.9 28.2 37.7 28.5Oshana 28.3 22.5 27.9 27.3 28.6 30.2 28.8 34.5 29.0Oshikoto 28.3 22.4 27.8 27.1 29.0 30.9 29.4 36.5 12.0Otjozondjupa 32.3 24.2 33.4 33.7 32.9 32.8 33.0 32.0 10.7Zambezi 28.4 19.7 27.2 26.9 27.6 34.5 34.4 34.8 12.0National 29.6 22.5 29.6 29.2 30.2 31.7 31.2 33.7 17.7

Table 10: Average class size by school phases in each region


Table 11: Male and female enrolments in Grades 0 through 12

Region Gender Total Pre-Primary

Lower Primary Upper Primary Junior Secondary Senior Secondary

Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

Grade 9

Grade 10

Grade 11

Grade 12

//Kharas Total 21,159 1,442 2,277 2,022 2,000 1,846 2,023 1,767 1,713 2,091 1,439 1,398 590 551 Male 10,362 672 1,130 1,008 1,029 939 1,030 871 831 1,000 712 622 266 252

Female 10,797 770 1,147 1,014 971 907 993 896 882 1,091 727 776 324 299

Erongo Total 35,666 1,722 3,528 3,978 3,530 3,376 3,424 3,029 2,850 3,024 2,672 2,180 1,201 1,152 Male 17,357 830 1,837 1,971 1,698 1,690 1,767 1,487 1,397 1,422 1,287 944 525 502

Female 18,309 892 1,691 2,007 1,832 1,686 1,657 1,542 1,453 1,602 1,385 1,236 676 650

Hardap Total 23,010 1,397 2,644 2,307 2,291 2,125 2,346 2,028 1,769 2,190 1,551 1,297 543 522 Male 11,409 703 1,326 1,162 1,161 1,069 1,193 997 890 1,083 719 608 256 242

Female 11,601 694 1,318 1,145 1,130 1,056 1,153 1,031 879 1,107 832 689 287 280

Kavango East Total 52,996 1,943 7,426 6,004 5,637 4,965 5,088 4,332 3,703 4,830 3,736 2,606 1,457 1,269 Male 26,669 915 3,826 3,089 2,884 2,480 2,546 2,178 1,845 2,358 1,796 1,297 756 699

Female 26,327 1,028 3,600 2,915 2,753 2,485 2,542 2,154 1,858 2,472 1,940 1,309 701 570

Kavango West Total 36,216 1,925 5,643 4,718 4,031 3,618 3,500 2,866 2,440 2,929 2,077 1,392 644 433 Male 18,632 947 3,032 2,450 2,063 1,932 1,709 1,488 1,184 1,440 1,040 726 360 261

Female 17,584 978 2,611 2,268 1,968 1,686 1,791 1,378 1,256 1,489 1,037 666 284 172

Khomas Total 80,636 3,951 8,512 7,900 7,423 7,057 7,341 6,521 6,402 6,830 6,075 5,890 3,531 3,203 Male 38,881 1,941 4,321 3,875 3,604 3,487 3,663 3,150 3,163 3,329 2,853 2,605 1,502 1,388

Female 41,755 2,010 4,191 4,025 3,819 3,570 3,678 3,371 3,239 3,501 3,222 3,285 2,029 1,815

Kunene Total 25,846 1,677 4,073 3,084 2,925 2,566 2,646 2,084 1,936 1,867 1,422 890 362 314 Male 12,963 833 2,070 1,547 1,438 1,294 1,361 1,076 983 890 687 424 196 164

Female 12,883 844 2,003 1,537 1,487 1,272 1,285 1,008 953 977 735 466 166 150

Ohangwena Total 96,346 3,576 10,658 9,292 8,865 8,997 9,454 8,098 7,601 10,569 8,039 5,577 2,864 2,756 Male 48,219 1,781 5,537 4,775 4,621 4,711 4,966 4,074 3,758 5,153 3,753 2,513 1,312 1,265

Female 48,127 1,795 5,121 4,517 4,244 4,286 4,488 4,024 3,843 5,416 4,286 3,064 1,552 1,491

Omaheke Total 20,796 1,110 2,748 2,380 2,381 2,084 2,192 1,677 1,560 1,822 1,316 835 380 311 Male 10,364 569 1,431 1,182 1,212 1,042 1,102 819 768 874 616 432 179 138

Female 10,432 541 1,317 1,198 1,169 1,042 1,090 858 792 948 700 403 201 173


The enrolments of female and male learners in Grades 1 through 12 are recorded in Table 11 for the benefit of readers requiring the actual numbers. Related indicators, i.e. percentages of female learners and average class size, are reported for the school phases in Tables 8 and 10 respectively. The total enrolments per phase are tabulated in Table 7.

Figure 11: Enrolment by grade and gender: Grade 1 to Grade 12

Table 11 continued

Region Gender Total Pre-Primary


Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

Grade 9

Grade 10

Grade 11

Grade 12

Omusati Total 88,185 3,371 9,748 8,224 7,763 8,001 8,710 7,479 6,858 9,675 7,142 4,844 3,388 2,982 Male 44,486 1,690 5,108 4,250 4,047 4,208 4,692 3,820 3,413 4,813 3,357 2,228 1,525 1,335

Female 43,699 1,681 4,640 3,974 3,716 3,793 4,018 3,659 3,445 4,862 3,785 2,616 1,863 1,647

Oshana Total 51,451 2,683 5,001 4,315 4,118 4,206 4,606 4,181 4,069 5,476 4,373 3,285 2,664 2,474 Male 25,356 1,314 2,534 2,157 2,057 2,113 2,440 2,097 2,050 2,781 2,104 1,427 1,181 1,101

Female 26,095 1,369 2,467 2,158 2,061 2,093 2,166 2,084 2,019 2,695 2,269 1,858 1,483 1,373

Oshikoto Total 64,698 3,422 7,011 6,093 5,777 5,894 6,388 5,405 4,864 6,639 5,017 3,332 2,581 2,275 Male 32,711 1,704 3,668 3,216 3,035 3,220 3,435 2,712 2,390 3,292 2,262 1,533 1,187 1,057

Female 31,987 1,718 3,343 2,877 2,742 2,674 2,953 2,693 2,474 3,347 2,755 1,799 1,394 1,218

Otjozondjupa Total 41,534 2,250 5,311 4,596 4,548 3,987 4,079 3,495 3,088 3,667 2,683 2,200 807 823 Male 20,432 1,120 2,718 2,324 2,244 2,025 2,042 1,730 1,539 1,723 1,226 975 378 388

Female 21,102 1,130 2,593 2,272 2,304 1,962 2,037 1,765 1,549 1,944 1,457 1,225 429 435

Zambezi Total 33,457 2,284 3,527 3,110 2,907 2,754 2,835 2,659 2,341 3,051 2,919 2,531 1,406 1,133 Male 16,943 1,106 1,851 1,604 1,472 1,363 1,466 1,365 1,198 1,641 1,442 1,192 668 575

Female 16,514 1,178 1,676 1,506 1,435 1,391 1,369 1,294 1,143 1,410 1,477 1,339 738 558

National Total 671,996 32,753 78,107 68,023 64,196 61,476 64,632 55,621 51,194 64,660 50,461 38,257 22,418 20,198 Male 334,784 16,125 40,389 34,610 32,565 31,573 33,412 27,864 25,409 31,799 23,854 17,526 10,291 9,367 Female 337,212 16,628 37,718 33,413 31,631 29,903 31,220 27,757 25,785 32,861 26,607 20,731 12,127 10,831


Table 12: Enrolments and class groups in “other” gradesRegion Indicator Other Pre-Primary Grade 13 Elementary

VocationalIntermediateVocational

Special Classes

Special Grade 6

Special Grade 7

Special Grade 8

Special Grade 9

Special Grade 10

Special Grade 11

Special Grade 12

Children with Special Needs

//Kharas Enrolment 1,499 1,442 - - - 57 - - - - - - - -Female enrolment 790 766 - - - 24 - - - - - - - -Male enrolment 709 676 - - - 33 - - - - - - - -% Female 52.7% 53.1% - - - 53.1% - - - - - - - -Class groups 68 63 - - - 5 - - - - - - - -Average class size 34 22.9 - - - 11.4 - - - - - - - -

Erongo Enrolment 2,682 1,722 - - - 123 12 - 364 232 118 46 65 -Female enrolment 1,395 892 - - - 46 3 - 185 138 65 34 32 -Male enrolment 1,287 830 - - - 77 9 - 179 94 53 12 33 -% Female 52.0% 51.8% - - - 37.4% 25.0% - 50.8% 59.5% 55.1% 73.9% 49.2% -Class groups 112 79 - - - 10 1 - 9 7 3 1 2 -Average class size 238 21.8 - - - 12.3 12.0 - 40.4 33.1 39.3 46.0 32.5 -

Hardap Enrolment 1,708 1,397 - - 14 269 28 - - - - - - -Female enrolment 814 694 - - - 107 13 - - - - - - -Male enrolment 894 703 - - 14 162 15 - - - - - - -% Female 47.7% 49.7% - - 0.0% 39.8% 46.4% - - - - - - -Class groups 93 71 - - 1 20 1 - - - - - - -Average class size 75 19.7 - - 14.0 13.5 28.0 - - - - - - -

Kavango East Enrolment 2,102 1,943 - - - 98 11 7 - - - - - 43Female enrolment 1,097 1,028 - - - 44 6 1 - - - - - 18Male enrolment 1,005 915 - - - 54 5 6 - - - - - 25% Female 52.2% 52.9% - - - 44.9% 54.5% 14.3% - - - - - 41.9%Class groups 94 82 - - - 7 1 1 - - - - - 3Average class size 70 23.7 - - - 14.0 11.0 7.0 - - - - - 14.3

Kavango West Enrolment 1,959 1,925 - - - 12 - - 16 3 3 - - -Female enrolment 991 978 - - - 3 - - 7 1 2 - - -Male enrolment 968 947 - - - 9 - - 9 2 1 - - -% Female 50.6% 50.8% - - - 25.0% - - 43.8% 33.3% 66.7% - - -Class groups 88 84 - - - 1 - - 1 1 1 - - -Average class size 57 22.9 - - - 12.0 - - 16.0 3.0 3.0 - - -

Khomas Enrolment 4,718 3,951 19 45 45 257 24 23 32 4 - - 80 238Female enrolment 2,298 2,010 16 21 25 73 14 15 19 4 - - - 101Male enrolment 2,420 1,941 3 24 20 184 10 8 13 0 - - 80 137% Female 48.7% 50.9% 84.2% 46.7% 55.6% 28.4% 58.3% 65.2% 59.4% 100.0% - - - 42.4%Class groups 223 157 1 4 5 17 2 2 3 1 - - 5 26Average class size 143 25.2 19.0 11.3 9.0 15.1 12.0 11.5 10.7 4.0 - - 16.0 9.2

Kunene Enrolment 1,713 1,677 - - - 36 - - - - - - - -Female enrolment 858 844 - - - 14 - - - - - - - -Male enrolment 855 833 - - - 22 - - - - - - - -% Female 50.1% 50.3% - - - 38.9% - - - - - - - -Class groups 83 81 - - - 2 - - - - - - - -Average class size 39 20.7 - - - 18.0 - - - - - - - -

Ohangwena Enrolment 3,576 3,576 - - - - - - - - - - - -Female enrolment 1,781 1,781 - - - - - - - - - - - -Male enrolment 1,795 1,795 - - - - - - - - - - - -% Female 49.8% 50.3% - - - - - - - - - - - -Class groups 160 160 - - - - - - - - - - - -Average class size 22 22.2 - - - - - - - - - - - -


Table 12 continued

Table 12 shows the data aggregated under the heading “Other” in Tables 7 through 10 by grade. All ordinary regions have been grouped together in this table.

It has to be noted that the enrolment in pre-vocational subjects at school level is still extremely poor. If the vision of creating a knowledge-based society through diversified vocational training is to be realised, then considerable attention and action must be accorded to increasing learner enrolment at this level.

Region Indicator Other Pre-Primary Grade 13 ElementaryVocational

IntermediateVocational

Special Classes

Special Grade 6

Special Grade 7

Special Grade 8

Special Grade 9

Special Grade 10

Special Grade 11

Special Grade 12

Children with Special Needs

Omaheke Enrolment 1,136 1,110 - - - 26 - - - - - - - -Female enrolment 548 541 - - - 7 - - - - - - - -Male enrolment 588 569 - - - 19 - - - - - - - -% Female 48.2% 48.7% - - - 26.9% - - - - - - - -Class groups 52 50 - - - 2 - - - - - - - -Average class size 35 22.2 - - - 13.0 - - - - - - - -

Omusati Enrolment 3,684 3,371 - - - - - - 153 116 44 - - -Female enrolment 1,833 1,681 - - - - - - 70 57 25 - - -Male enrolment 1,851 1,690 - - - - - - 83 59 19 - - -% Female 49.8% 49.9% - - - - - - 45.8% 49.1% 56.8% - - -Class groups 161 150 - - - - - - 5 4 2 - - -Average class size 104 22.5 - - - - - - 30.6 29.0 22.0 - - -

Oshana Enrolment 3,234 2,683 - - - 4 - - 162 140 103 71 71 -Female enrolment 1,637 1,369 - - - 2 - - 71 59 51 42 43 -Male enrolment 1,597 1,314 - - - 2 - - 91 81 52 29 28 -% Female 50.6% 51.0% - - - 50.0% - - 43.8% 42.1% 49.5% 59.2% 60.6% -Class groups 138 119 - - - 2 - - 6 4 3 2 2 -Average class size 192 22.5 - - - 2.0 - - 27.0 35.0 34.3 35.5 35.5 -

Oshikoto Enrolment 3,434 3,422 - - - 12 - - - - - - - -Female enrolment 1,721 1,718 - - - 3 - - - - - - - -Male enrolment 1,713 1,704 - - - 9 - - - - - - - -% Female 50.1% 50.2% - - - 25.0% - - - - - - - -Class groups 154 153 - - - 1 - - - - - - - -Average class size 34 22.4 - - - 12.0 - - - - - - - -

Otjozondjupa Enrolment 2,421 2,250 - 13 2 156 - - - - - - - -Female enrolment 1,192 1,130 - 5 1 56 - - - - - - - -Male enrolment 1,229 1,120 - 8 1 100 - - - - - - - -% Female 49.2% 50.2% - 38.5% 50.0% 35.9% - - - - - - - -Class groups 109 93 - 1 1 14 - - - - - - - -Average class size 50 24.2 - 13.0 2.0 11.1 - - - - - - - -

Zambezi Enrolment 2,296 2,284 - - - 12 - - - - - - - -Female enrolment 1,182 1,178 - - - 4 - - - - - - - -Male enrolment 1,114 1,106 - - - 8 - - - - - - - -% Female 51.5% 51.6% - - - 33.3% - - - - - - - -Class groups 117 116 - - - 1 - - - - - - - -Average class size 32 19.7 - - - 12.0 - - - - - - - -

National Enrolment 36,162 32,753 19 58 61 1,062 75 30 727 495 268 117 216 281Female enrolment 18,137 16,610 16 26 26 383 36 16 352 259 143 76 75 119Male enrolment 18,025 16,143 3 32 35 679 39 14 375 236 125 41 141 162% Female 50.2% 50.7% 84.2% 44.8% 42.6% 36.1% 48.0% 53.3% 48.4% 52.3% 53.4% 65.0% 34.7% 42.3%Class groups 1,652 1,458 1 5 7 82 5 3 24 17 9 3 9 29Average class size 21.9 22.5 19.0 11.6 8.7 13.0 15.0 10.0 30.3 29.1 29.8 39.0 24.0 9.7


Table 13: Enrolments in state and private schools

Region Control of school Total Pre-Primary

Primary SecondaryOtherSubtotal

PrimaryLower

PrimaryUpper

PrimarySubtotal

SecondaryJunior

SecondarySenior

Secondary//Kharas Total 21,216 1,442 13,648 8,145 5,503 6,069 4,928 1,141 57

State 18,386 1,183 11,729 7,044 4,685 5,424 4,451 973 50Private 2,830 259 1,919 1,101 818 645 477 168 7

Erongo Total 36,626 1,722 23,715 14,412 9,303 10,229 7,876 2,353 960State 32,211 1,318 21,156 12,801 8,355 8,798 6,935 1,863 939Private 4,415 404 2,559 1,611 948 1,431 941 490 21

Hardap Total 23,321 1,397 15,510 9,367 6,143 6,103 5,038 1,065 311State 22,651 1,351 15,125 9,151 5,974 5,906 4,908 998 269Private 670 46 385 216 169 197 130 67 42

Kavango East Total 53,155 1,943 37,155 24,032 13,123 13,898 11,172 2,726 159State 51,715 1,393 36,585 23,608 12,977 13,578 10,943 2,635 159Private 1,440 550 570 424 146 320 229 91 -

Kavango West Total 36,250 1,925 26,816 18,010 8,806 7,475 6,398 1,077 34State 35,940 1,925 26,816 18,010 8,806 7,165 6,191 974 34Private 310 - - - - 310 207 103 -

Khomas Total 81,403 3,951 51,156 30,892 20,264 25,548 18,795 6,753 748State 66,483 1,982 42,768 25,544 17,224 21,036 15,772 5,264 697Private 14,920 1,969 8,388 5,348 3,040 4,512 3,023 1,489 51

Kunene Total 25,882 1,677 19,314 12,648 6,666 4,855 4,179 676 36State 25,007 1,619 18,595 12,212 6,383 4,757 4,121 636 36Private 875 58 719 436 283 98 58 40 -

Ohangwena Total 96,346 3,576 62,965 37,812 25,153 29,805 24,185 5,620 -State 93,732 3,322 61,077 36,512 24,565 29,333 23,948 5,385 -Private 2,614 254 1,888 1,300 588 472 237 235 -

Omaheke Total 20,822 1,110 15,022 9,593 5,429 4,664 3,973 691 26State 18,792 1,064 13,670 8,843 4,827 4,032 3,460 572 26Private 2,030 46 1,352 750 602 632 513 119 -

Omusati Total 88,498 3,371 56,783 33,736 23,047 28,031 21,661 6,370 313State 86,992 3,295 55,882 33,228 22,654 27,502 21,273 6,229 313Private 1,506 76 901 508 393 529 388 141 -


Table 13 continued

Region Control of school Total Pre-Primary

Primary SecondaryOtherSubtotal

PrimaryLower

PrimaryUpper

PrimarySubtotal

SecondaryJunior

SecondarySenior

SecondaryOshana Total 52,002 2,683 30,496 17,640 12,856 18,272 13,134 5,138 551

State 48,923 2,064 28,230 16,037 12,193 18,078 12,940 5,138 551Private 3,079 619 2,266 1,603 663 194 194 - -

Oshikoto Total 64,710 3,422 41,432 24,775 16,657 19,844 14,988 4,856 12State 60,663 3,011 38,624 23,051 15,573 19,016 14,440 4,576 12Private 4,047 411 2,808 1,724 1,084 828 548 280 -

Otjozondjupa Total 41,705 2,250 29,104 18,442 10,662 10,180 8,550 1,630 171State 40,298 2,150 28,240 17,832 10,408 9,737 8,183 1,554 171Private 1,407 100 864 610 254 443 367 76 -

Zambezi Total 33,469 2,284 20,133 12,298 7,835 11,040 8,501 2,539 12State 32,477 2,201 19,684 11,999 7,685 10,580 8,241 2,339 12Private 992 83 449 299 150 460 260 200 -

National Total 675,405 32,753 443,249 271,802 171,447 196,013 153,378 42,635 3,390State 634,270 27,878 418,181 255,872 162,309 184,942 145,806 39,136 3,269Private 41,135 4,875 25,068 15,930 9,138 11,071 7,572 3,499 121

Table 13 and Figure 13a show that the vast majority of Namibian learners attend public schools: nationally, only 6.0% of all learners were enrolled in private schools in the year under review. More than 10% of the learners in //Kharas, Erongo, Khomas and Omaheke attended private schools in 2015. Khomas had the highest percentage of learners enrolled in private schools (18.3%) and Kavango West had the lowest percentage (0.86%). Note that the values for Khomas under “Senior Secondary” and “Other“ differ from the values in Table 7, due to the different categorisation of 19 learners in Grade 13: in Table 7 they are included under “Other”, whereas in Table 13 they are included under “Senior Secondary”.

Figure 13a: Percentage of all learners in state and private schools in each region

Figure 13b: Percentage of all learners in state and private schools in each school phase


Table 14: Enrolments in primary and junior secondary subjects

SubjectLower Primary Upper Primary

SubjectJunior Secondary

Lower Primary

Pre-Primary

Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Upper Primary

Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 7

Junior Secondary

Grade 8

Grade 9

Grade 10

Afrikaans 1st or Home Language 3,144 22 780 848 665 829 8,023 2,883 2,684 2,456 Accounting 42,843 16,690 14,271 11,882

Afrikaans 2nd Language 10,849 59 2,475 2,761 2,404 3,150 28,437 10,709 9,354 8,374 Afrikaans 1st or Home Language 4,944 2,008 1,562 1,374

Arts (non-productive) 26,397 219 6,710 5,899 5,990 7,579 11,156 3,876 3,745 3,535 Afrikaans 2nd Language 27,265 10,158 8,941 8,166

Basic Information Science 168 0 168 0 0 0 10,814 3,889 3,560 3,365 Agriculture 98,783 42,295 32,780 23,708

Computer Literacy 527 0 70 61 96 300 2,063 895 599 569 Art and Design 144 16 71 57

Design and Technology 71 0 0 52 0 19 17,374 6,323 5,579 5,472 Art of Entertainment 364 162 161 41

Elementary Agriculture 0 0 0 0 0 0 124,130 47,215 40,188 36,727 Arts (non-productive) 312 171 86 55

English 1st Language 5,934 37 1,363 1,671 1,290 1,573 11,217 4,483 3,821 2,913 Arts in Culture 4,257 2,303 1,160 794

English 2nd Language 42,238 226 10,624 9,563 9,547 12,278 151,072 56,576 49,046 45,450 Basic Information Science 5,212 2,721 1,558 933

Environmental Studies 43,918 279 10,706 10,211 9,866 12,856 664 274 202 188 Life Science 440 61 167 212

French Foreign Language 171 0 48 63 42 18 236 54 93 89 Business Accounting 349 109 156 84

General Science 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 10 0 Computer Literacy 1,732 808 462 462

Geography 0 0 0 0 0 0 389 87 100 202 Computer Practice 244 119 115 10

German 1st or Home Language 270 0 52 66 97 55 1,093 416 408 269 Computer Studies 6,763 2,428 2,170 2,165

German 3rd or Foreign Language 63 0 27 0 0 36 351 123 128 100 Design and Communication 51 44 - 7

Grade 0 class teaching 30,970 30,970 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Design and Technology 4,219 1,675 1,396 1,148

Grade 1 class teaching 64,298 0 64,298 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Elementary Agriculture 501 306 150 45

Grade 2 class teaching 55,782 0 0 55,782 0 0 0 0 0 0 English 1st Language 5,045 2,046 1,673 1,326

Grade 3 class teaching 53,214 0 0 0 53,214 0 0 0 0 0 English 2nd Language 144,233 60,552 47,659 36,022

Grade 4 class teaching 47,053 0 0 0 0 47,053 0 0 0 0 Entrepreneurship 136,460 58,021 44,866 33,573

Grade 5 class teaching 0 0 0 0 0 0 2,861 2,861 0 0 French Foreign Language 1,800 593 637 570

Grade 6 class teaching 0 0 0 0 0 0 2,276 0 2,276 0 Functional Maths 63 33 30 -

Grade 7 class teaching 0 0 0 0 0 0 2,099 0 0 2,099 General Science 160 69 91 -

Handwriting 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 9 0 0 Geography 147,659 62,466 48,541 36,652

Home Ecology 0 0 0 0 0 0 21,926 8,221 7,288 6,417 German 1st or Home Language 607 186 210 211

Individual Learning 55 0 0 44 0 11 25 0 25 0 German 3rd or Foreign Language 3,112 1,265 1,005 842

Ju/`hoansi 0 0 0 0 0 0 146 46 57 43 Guidance 87 - 62 25

Keyboard and Word Processing 0 0 0 0 0 0 95 11 56 28 Hairdressing 33 19 6 8

Khoekhoegowab 5,360 72 1,354 1,451 1,148 1,335 10,754 4,275 3,357 3,122 Handwriting 30 - 10 20

Life Skills 0 0 0 0 0 0 24,975 9,655 7,953 7,367 History and Geography 22 - 22 -

Mathematics 44,863 381 11,037 10,442 10,059 12,944 161,224 60,806 52,341 48,077 Home Economics 3,022 1,597 869 556


Table 14 continued

SubjectLower Primary Upper Primary

SubjectJunior Secondary

Lower Primary

Pre-Primary

Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Upper Primary

Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 7

Junior Secondary

Grade 8

Grade 9

Grade 10

Natural Science & Health Education 399 0 0 0 0 399 159,659 60,316 51,636 47,707 Integrated Performing Arts 556 228 151 177

Oshikwanyama 5,165 24 1,249 1,079 1,044 1,769 31,327 11,755 10,070 9,502 Keyboard and Word Processing 5,779 2,334 1,861 1,584

Oshindonga 12,041 51 2,903 2,647 2,799 3,641 45,162 16,679 14,672 13,811 Khoekhoegowab 6,546 3,264 1,999 1,283

Otjiherero 3,747 81 951 828 810 1,077 9,161 3,533 2,807 2,821 Life Science 145,862 61,511 47,729 36,622

Physical Education 26,051 255 6,524 6,048 5,779 7,445 10,504 3,855 3,214 3,435 Life Skills 19,901 9,618 6,204 4,079

Physical Science 71 0 36 0 0 35 311 71 44 196 Mathematics 148,509 62,739 48,753 37,017

Portuguese 0 0 0 0 0 0 71 44 14 13 Needlework and Clothing 975 469 281 225

Religious and Moral Education 26,527 238 6,555 5,962 6,095 7,677 11,590 4,470 3,649 3,471 Office Administration and Keyboard 44 - 30 14

Rukwangali 3,098 0 843 615 643 997 12,528 4,843 4,096 3,589 Oshikwanyama 30,108 13,229 10,071 6,808

Rumanyo (Rugciriku) 1,715 0 421 406 348 540 5,686 2,248 1,886 1,552 Oshindonga 43,049 18,849 14,012 10,188

School Art 83 0 49 0 16 18 52 20 32 0 Otjiherero 8,667 3,820 2,709 2,138

School Music 293 0 114 62 71 46 200 134 40 26 Physical Education 7,001 3,739 1,999 1,263

Setswana 325 0 99 66 87 73 458 183 169 106 Physical Science 144,870 60,928 47,636 36,306

Sign Language 81 0 0 28 44 9 221 94 44 83 Portuguese 1,032 444 308 280

Silozi 1,120 18 330 264 250 258 7,279 2,796 2,384 2,099 Religious and Moral Education 4,322 2,305 1,171 846

Social Sciences 0 0 0 0 0 0 167 97 36 34 Rukwangali 9,665 4,263 3,073 2,329

Social Studies 0 0 0 0 0 0 160,044 60,473 52,046 47,525 Rumanyo 4,146 1,798 1,494 854

Spanish Foreign Language 0 0 0 0 0 0 104 48 27 29 Setswana 315 146 99 70

Thimbukushu 189 0 0 23 79 87 2,449 952 780 717 Sign Language 124 40 42 42

Silozi 8,335 3,038 2,845 2,452

Thimbukushu 2,064 872 766 426

Tourism 71 0 61 10

Typing or Typing & Office Admin 108 65 39 4

Visual Arts 482 195 157 130

Woodwork 27 0 0 27

Enrolment in different subjects is tabulated for the primary and junior secondary grades in Table 14, and for the senior secondary grades in Table 15.

It is important to note that a number of private schools offered subjects which were not offered in state schools, or which were offered in different grades in state schools. Deviations from the Ministry’s curriculum thus do not indicate an error.

Class teaching was used in Grades 1-4, although exceptionally it could be observed up to Grade 7. In higher grades, subject teaching was generally practised predominantly.


Table 15: Enrolments in senior secondary subjects

Subject Level Senior Secondary Grade 11 Grade 12

Accounting H 577 338 239O 5,100 2,663 2,437

Afrikaans 1st or Home Language H 387 203 184O 1,229 580 649

Afrikaans 2nd Language H 470 287 183O 5,632 2,898 2,734

Agriculture H 106 62 44O 14,144 7,246 6,898

Art and Design H 29 19 10O 99 42 57

Arts (non-productive) H - - - O 26 - 26

Arts in Culture H - - - O 28 - 28

Biblical Studies H 45 45 - O 81 48 33

Biology H 2,899 1,763 1,136O 25,145 12,595 12,550

Business Accounting H - - - O 28 28

Business Economics H 6 1 5O 302 160 142

Business Studies H 740 453 287O 4,455 2,460 1,995

Chemistry H 6 - 6O 6 - 6

Computer Literacy H - - - O 412 190 222

Computer Practice H 62 10 52O 62 10 52


Computer Studies H 90 50 40O 746 447 299

Design and Technology H 239 106 133O 342 173 169

Development Studies H 157 72 85O 14,471 7,704 6,767

Drama H 25 - 25O 25 - 25

Economics H 602 371 231O 3,895 2,047 1,848

Educare H - - - O 38 38

English 1st Language H 509 261 248O 1,335 750 585

English 2nd Language H 3,211 1,783 1,428O 36,018 18,783 17,235

Fashion and Fabrics H - - - O 76 42 34

French Foreign Language H 23 18 5O 496 289 207

Geography H 1,443 852 591O 16,500 8,445 8,055

German 1st or Home Language H 41 22 19O 204 117 87

German 3rd or Foreign Language H 99 41 58O 713 358 355

History H 880 487 393O 7,455 3,820 3,635

Keyboard and Word Processing H - - - O 138 36 102


Table 15 continued

Enrolment in different subjects taught in the Senior Secondary phase is tabulated in Table 15. A distinction is made between the levels at which the subjects are taken – Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Higher Level (NSSC-H) or Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary Level (NSSC-O).


Khoekhoegowab H 3 1 2O 742 439 303

Life Skills H - - - O 2,772 1,424 1348

Mathematics H 1,660 968 692O 38,983 20,275 18708

Office Administration and Keyboard H 31 - 31O 389 244 145

Oshikwanyama H 4,104 1,802 2302O 4,276 2,416 1860

Oshindonga H 7,556 3,951 3605O 5,876 2,950 2926

Otjiherero H 28 9 19O 1,593 851 742

Physical Education H - - - O 1,765 805 960

Physical Science H 1,998 1,214 784O 22,805 11,645 11160

Physics H 6 6O 175 89 86

Portuguese H - - - O 196 90 106

Religious and Moral Education H 0O 162 121 41

Rukwangali H 906 425 481O 1,519 932 587


Rumanyo H - O 743 369 374

Setswana H - O 78 21 57

Sign Language H - O 3 3

Silozi H 644 314 330O 1,756 1,057 699

Technical Drawing H - - - O 5 - 5

Television Radiotrician Work H - - - O 8 - 8

Thimbukushu H 0O 347 204 143

Tourism H 0O 25 5 20

Typing or Typing & Office Admin H - - - O 1 1

Visual Arts H 2 2 - O 35 35 -

Welding and Metalwork H - - - O 34 34 -


Table 16: Home languages of learners

Statistics on home languages of learners and medium of instruction are presented in Tables 16-18. Enrolment per home language is reported in Table 16, and enrolment per medium of instruction in Grades 1-3 in Table 17. Table 18 shows how many learners with different home languages were taught in various mediums of instruction.

The home-language statistics are collected by grouping the languages in a way that is consistent with the medium of instruction used in Namibian schools.

Out of all learners in Namibia, Oshikwanyama speakers constituted 24.0%, Other Oshiwambo 14.0% and Oshindonga 12.0%. There were 338,014 Oshiwambo-speaking

Figure 16: Home languages of learners

learners in total, representing 50.0% of the school population. Other home languages with enrolments exceeding 40,000 were Khoekhoegowab (11%), Other Caprivi (4.0%), Otjiherero (8.0%), Afrikaans (6.0%) and Rukwangali (6.0%). The remaining home languages together represented 20.0% of the total number of learners. The San-speaking learners were only 2.0% of the entire learner population. This could be attributed to two factors: the San population is relatively small; and many San children are not attending school. It should also be noted that many San learners do not speak any San language at all or at home, and thus do not consider a San language to be their home language. Even though the number of San children in schools has increased by about 0.5% since 2013, their situation requires specific attention and action by the Ministry.

Region Total Pre-Primary

Primary SecondarySubtotal Primary

Lower Primary

Upper Primary

Subtotal Secondary

Junior Secondary

Senior Secondary Other

Afrikaans 40,062 2,546 23,583 13,771 9,812 13,563 10,030 3,533 370English 5,953 528 3,411 1,881 1,530 1,968 1,390 578 46German 2,343 67 1,523 897 626 753 485 268 0Khoekhoegowab 77,076 3,850 54,830 33,428 21,402 17,564 15,075 2,489 832Oshikwanyama 161,515 5,944 104,769 62,900 41,869 50,427 39,549 10,878 375Oshindonga 80,122 4,491 48,881 29,720 19,161 26,588 19,636 6,952 162Other Caprivi 27,736 1,593 16,424 9,765 6,659 9,705 7,287 2,418 14Other European 1,886 100 703 355 348 1,076 743 333 7Other Languages 35,432 1,453 24,708 15,516 9,192 9,147 7,719 1,428 124Other Oshiwambo 96,377 4,174 60,576 35,387 25,189 30,925 23,541 7,384 702Otjiherero 54,571 2,974 37,001 23,232 13,769 14,103 11,449 2,654 493Rugciriku 13,328 592 9,971 6,611 3,360 2,755 2,355 400 10Rukwangali 42,482 2,176 31,104 20,686 10,418 9,133 7,485 1,648 69Rushambyu 3,290 195 2,114 1,400 714 974 643 331 7San (Ju/`hoansi) 10,239 643 8,603 6,515 2,088 954 901 53 39Setswana 1,752 68 1,006 602 404 662 527 135 16Sign Language 1,073 63 705 429 276 196 142 54 109Silozi 8,900 833 5,361 3,470 1,891 2,699 2,113 586 7Thimbukushu 11,268 463 7,976 5,237 2,739 2,821 2,308 513 8National 675,405 32,753 443,249 271,802 171,447 196,013 153,378 42,635 3,390


Table 17: Medium of instruction in Grades 1-3: schools, numbers of learners and class groups Table 17 shows the number of schools offering different mediums of instruction in Grades 1-3, and the numbers of learners and class groups. The few schools offering more than one medium of instruction in these grades were counted under each medium. Multigrade class groups were counted as one for each grade group in the class. This method deviates from the one used for Table 9, and generates the number of Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 groups for each medium of instruction.

The Ministry’s language policy encourages mother-tongue education in Grades 1-3. A different medium of instruction – typically English – can be used if the parents recommend it. Increasing numbers of learners from different mother-tongue settlements (especially in urban areas) and the lack of teachers of different languages are two of the factors contributing to the increasing use of English as the medium of instruction – a deviation from the language policy.

English, the medium used in the highest number of schools and class groups, has the highest enrolment, followed by Oshindonga and Oshikwanyama respectively. Differences in the average sizes of schools and class groups resulted in different distributions of the three measures.

Figure 17a: Enrolments in classes with different mediums of instruction in Grades 1-3

Figure 17b: Numbers of schools with different mediums of instruction in Grades 1-3

Figure 17c: Numbers of class groups with different mediums of instruction in Grades 1-3

Medium of instruction Schools

Enrolment Class GroupsTotal Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3

Total 1,781 210,326 78,107 68,023 64,196 2,569 2,368 2,225Afrikaans 90 11,422 4,131 3,640 3,651 137 130 128English 345 58,535 20,886 19,146 18,503 629 595 561German 9 488 134 151 203 12 10 13Ju/`hoansi 1 167 81 55 31 5 2 2Khoekhoegowab 88 11,302 4,124 3,628 3,550 129 121 116

Oshikwanyama 278 32,179 12,070 10,292 9,817 386 341 325Oshindonga 452 43,587 16,212 14,204 13,171 585 545 512

Otjiherero 87 12,836 5,096 4,106 3,634 166 146 134Rukwangali 168 18,692 7,404 5,919 5,369 240 214 189Rumanyo 100 8,104 3,084 2,705 2,315 109 109 97Setswana 2 358 136 101 121 4 3 4Sign Language 5 179 56 56 67 5 5 6Silozi 85 8,766 3,185 2,871 2,710 109 102 102Thimbukushu 71 3,711 1,508 1,149 1,054 53 45 36


Table 18: Home languages and medium of instruction of learners in Grades 1-3

Grade Medium of instruction

Home language

Total

Afrikaans

English

Germ

an

Khoekhoegow

ab

Oshikw

anyama

Oshindonga

Other C

aprivi

Other European

Other Languages

Other O

shiwam

bo

Otjiherero

Rugciriku

Rukw

angali

Rum

anyo

Rusham

byu

San (Ju/`hoansi)

Setswana

Sign Language

Silozi

Thimbukushu

Grade 1 Total 78,107 3,845 559 197 9,058 17,329 8,558 2,777 73 4,596 10,212 6,793 2,165 6,473 3 412 2,202 166 96 947 1,646Afrikaans 4,131 2,214 61 5 1,103 59 64 17 1 144 165 170 27 63 - 7 6 14 - 4 7English 20,886 1,525 485 12 4,341 3,410 2,124 328 61 990 2,266 2,403 309 1,011 3 105 1,142 65 11 236 59German 134 15 9 90 3 1 3 - 2 3 - 5 - 1 - 1 1 - - - -Ju/`hoansi 81 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 81 - - - -Khoekhoegowab 4,124 48 - - 3,508 32 34 - - 2 54 185 3 12 - - 240 6 - - -Oshikwanyama 12,070 18 - 33 6 11,051 105 1 4 47 748 2 - 15 - - 39 - - 1 -Oshindonga 16,212 2 - 57 8 2,694 6,162 6 5 357 6,851 37 3 17 - - 9 - - 4 -Otjiherero 5,096 1 1 - 45 47 21 3 - 490 98 3,975 1 35 0 2 359 6 8 2 2Rukwangali 7,404 - 2 - 8 31 13 4 - 2,013 17 1 107 4,938 0 10 150 0 53 5 52Rumanyo 3,084 - - - 3 3 31 1 - 520 1 0 1,699 378 0 286 50 0 - 2 110Setswana 136 1 - - 18 - - - - 8 0 9 0 0 - 0 46 54 - - -Sign Language 56 - - - 4 - - - - - 1 4 0 0 0 0 2 21 24 - -Silozi 3,185 21 1 - - - - 2,412 - 18 10 2 0 1 0 0 13 0 - 690 17Thimbukushu 1,508 - - - 11 1 1 5 - 4 1 0 16 2 0 1 64 0 - 3 1,399

Grade 2 Total 68,023 3,542 469 165 8,470 15,509 7,323 2,518 106 3,786 8,957 5,798 1,749 5,254 - 321 1,703 133 111 804 1,305Afrikaans 3,640 2,010 39 46 1,048 80 40 7 2 13 122 152 8 27 - - 7 21 - 16 2English 19,146 1,439 367 9 4,120 3,405 1,861 244 51 931 2,004 2,272 231 892 - 54 847 50 32 210 127German 151 16 22 96 3 2 1 - 4 1 2 4 - - - - - - - - -Ju/`hoansi 55 - - - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 55 0 0 - -Khoekhoegowab 3,628 32 - - 3,241 32 30 0 0 0 23 76 0 12 0 0 178 3 0 - 1Oshikwanyama 10,292 25 - - 0 9,472 149 0 17 9 547 0 0 3 0 0 25 0 45 - -Oshindonga 14,204 3 40 14 7 2,438 5,206 42 1 255 6,153 12 0 10 0 1 9 0 0 10 3Otjiherero 4,106 4 - - 23 36 22 2 28 328 43 3,257 3 27 0 3 308 11 1 1 9Rukwangali 5,919 7 - - 7 36 11 12 2 1,653 14 19 58 3,926 0 33 117 0 0 13 11Rumanyo 2,705 - - - 2 4 1 0 0 559 29 0 1,427 326 0 229 50 0 1 3 74Setswana 101 - - - 16 0 0 0 0 11 0 5 0 0 0 0 33 36 0 - -Sign Language 56 1 - - 3 0 0 0 0 0 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 12 32 - -Silozi 2,871 5 1 - 0 2 2 2,206 1 24 11 0 0 27 0 1 26 0 0 549 16Thimbukushu 1,149 - - - 0 2 0 5 0 2 2 0 22 4 0 0 48 0 0 2 1,062

Grade 3 Total 64,196 3,256 393 250 8,448 14,794 7,019 2,301 101 3,680 8,120 5,478 1,440 4,764 - 339 1,472 171 64 880 1,226Afrikaans 3,651 1,855 86 47 1,011 165 52 7 - 29 116 142 9 43 - 3 56 16 - 9 5English 18,503 1,283 291 56 4,145 3,339 1,737 241 70 1,024 1,739 2,333 193 789 - 81 754 69 10 212 137


Table 18 continued

Although the Ministry’s language policy promotes mother-tongue education in the first three grades, not all learners are being taught in their mother tongue. Two factors may contribute to this: learners residing in areas where their mother tongue is not offered as a medium of instruction due to insufficient numbers of learners; and parents’ decision either to collectively introduce a different medium of instruction in a school or to enrol their child in a school with a different medium of instruction.

Figure 18 shows that the language groups with the highest percentages of learners taught in their mother tongue were English (80%), Rumanyo (80%), Rukwangali (75%) and Oshindonga (72%). The languages with the lowest percentage of learners taught in their mother tongue were Ju/’hoansi (0%), Silozi (0%) and Thimbukushu (0.5%).

The closely related languages Rugciriku and Shishambyu were taught in the common medium of instruction, Rumanyo – not a mother tongue but an artificial language used as medium of instruction to accommodate speakers of the two applicable languages. The term “San Languages” groups together the very different languages of Namibia’s different San peoples, and all schools use the Ju/’hoansi language as the medium of instruction for San learners.

For the benefit of the reader desiring to know the extent to which learners with speech and hearing impairments are catered for, “Sign Language” is included as a language on its own. It is important to note that many teachers still do not consider sign language an independent language, hence they reported learners from Oshindonga-speaking households as Oshindonga speakers rather than Sign Language speakers, therefore the number of Sign Language speakers should not be interpreted as the number of learners with hearing impairments.

Figure 18: Percentage of learners taught in their mother tongue in Grades 1-3

Grade Medium of instruction

Home language

Total

Afrikaans

English

Germ

an

Khoekhoegow

ab

Oshikw

anyama

Oshindonga

Other C

aprivi

Other European

Other Languages

Other O

shiwam

bo

Otjiherero

Rugciriku

Rukw

angali

Rum

anyo

Rusham

byu

San (Ju/`hoansi)

Setswana

Sign Language

Silozi

Thimbukushu

Grade 3 cont.

German 203 40 8 99 6 2 - - 2 7 11 22 - 1 - - - 2 - 3 -Ju/`hoansi 31 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 31 - - - -Khoekhoegowab 3,550 46 - - 3,148 47 25 3 - 17 29 70 4 16 - - 130 11 - 1 3Oshikwanyama 9,817 - 3 48 - 8,997 144 1 3 17 578 1 - 4 - 1 18 1 - 1 -Oshindonga 13,171 1 2 - 40 2,185 5,038 31 - 262 5,550 17 - 17 - - - - 14 12 2Otjiherero 3,634 2 - - 59 32 8 2 26 279 66 2,859 - 31 - - 268 - - - 2Rukwangali 5,369 - 1 - 10 18 9 5 - 1,543 15 2 74 3,493 - 49 88 - - 10 52Rumanyo 2,315 - 2 - 1 5 2 2 - 473 2 23 1,139 359 - 203 39 1 - 1 63Setswana 121 - - - 24 1 1 - - 7 - 5 - - - - 29 54 - - -Sign Language 67 - - - 2 - 2 - - - 1 3 - - - - 2 17 40 - -Silozi 2,710 29 - - 1 3 1 2,004 - 21 6 1 - 1 - - 7 - - 631 5Thimbukushu 1,054 - - - 1 - - 5 - 1 7 - 21 10 - 2 50 - - - 957


Table 19: Changes in female and male enrolments from 2009 to 2015Table 19 shows the enrolment of female and male learners in the different school phases from 2009 to 2015. The average annual growth rate was calculated by com-paring the 2009 and 2015 figures.

Female and male enrolments in the four phases are shown graphically in Figure 19. The four charts have different scales, thus the heights of the bars are not comparable from one chart to the next.

A change in the promotion policy resulted in an improved flow of learners, which can be said to have caused the decline of enrolment in the Lower Primary phase and the increasing enrolment in both the Upper Primary and Junior Secondary phases.

Lower promotion rates and higher school-leaving rates of males in lower primary and junior secondary grades could have resulted in female enrolment being higher than male enrolment in upper primary and junior secondary grades (see Table 30).

The highest average annual growth rate was recor ded in “Other Grades”, this being a result of the introduction of pre-primary education in state schools.

School Phase Gender

Year Average annual growth rate 2009-2015

Percentage change

2014-2015

Enrolment Growth rate 2009-20152009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

TotalAll Grades Total 585,471 591,356 605,627 617,827 638,789 650,712 675,405 2.4% 15.4% 3.8%

Female 296,322 298,576 305,337 310,504 320,331 326,276 338,739 2.3% 14.3% 3.8%Male 289,149 292,780 300,290 307,323 318,458 324,436 336,666 2.6% 16.4% 3.8%

PrimarySubtotal Primary(Grades 0-7)

Total 406,920 406,535 408,804 415,454 449,987 459,127 476,002 2.6% 17.0% 3.7%Female 200,909 200,276 201,140 204,061 221,120 225,693 234,055 2.6% 16.5% 3.7%Male 206,011 206,259 207,664 211,393 228,867 233,434 241,947 2.7% 17.4% 3.6%

Lower Primary(Grades 0-4)


Upper Primary(Grades 5-7)


SecondarySubtotal Secondary(Grades 8-12)


Junior Secondary(Grades 10-12)


Senior Secondary(Grades 11-12)


Other GradesSubtotal Other Grades

Total 9,161 10,561 15,416 19,428 1,608 1,937 3,409 -15.2% -62.8% 76.0%Female 4,437 5,145 7,626 9,583 625 811 1,527 -16.3% -65.6% 88.3%Male 4,724 5,416 7,790 9,845 983 1,126 1,882 -14.2% -60.2% 67.1%

Figure 19: Changes in female and male

enrolments



Table 20: Changes in enrolments in different grades from 2009 to 2015

GradeYear Average annual

growth rate 2009-2015

Percentage change

2014-2015

Enrolment Growth rate 2009-20152009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Total 585,471 591,356 605,627 617,827 638,789 650,712 675,405 2.4% 3.8% 15.4%Pre-Primary 6,141 8,475 13,459 17,572 24,745 29,091 32,753 32.2% 12.6% 433.3%

Grade 1 65,276 65,386 67,071 71,074 74,886 75,374 78,107 3.0% 3.6% 19.7%

Grade 2 59,343 58,175 58,397 60,086 63,518 65,789 68,023 2.3% 3.4% 14.6%

Grade 3 58,236 58,160 56,230 56,693 58,531 60,341 64,196 1.6% 6.4% 10.2%

Grade 4 56,784 57,508 58,364 57,207 57,662 58,797 61,476 1.3% 4.6% 8.3%

Grade 5 62,768 62,975 62,755 63,987 63,748 63,334 64,632 0.5% 2.0% 3.0%

Grade 6 53,307 54,677 55,533 55,422 55,721 55,369 55,621 0.7% 0.5% 4.3%

Grade 7 51,206 49,654 50,454 50,985 51,176 51,032 51,194 -0.0% 0.3% 0.0%

Grade 8 53,105 55,917 60,596 62,545 63,788 63,598 64,660 3.3% 1.7% 21.8%

Grade 9 42,126 43,381 44,241 46,389 48,641 49,591 50,461 3.1% 1.8% 19.8%

Grade 10 36,220 33,959 36,194 34,255 34,833 36,207 38,257 0.9% 5.7% 5.6%

Grade 11 20,690 21,054 20,057 20,674 20,421 21,168 22,418 1.3% 5.9% 8.4%

Grade 12 17,249 19,949 20,319 19,082 19,511 19,068 20,198 2.7% 5.9% 17.1%

Grade 13 41 9 10 19 16 16 19 -12.0% 18.8% -53.7%

Special Classes 1,059 1,052 1,027 1,155 973 1,012 1,062 0.0% 4.9% 0.3%

Vocational 38 42 53 34 117 128 119 21.0% -7.0% 213.2%

Special Grades 1,391 749 743 515 390 689 1,928 5.6% 179.8% 38.6%

Handicapped 491 234 124 133 112 108 281 -8.9% 160.2% -42.8%

Enrolment in the different grades is tabulated for the years 2009 to 2015 in Table 20, together with the average annual growth rate over the whole period and the last two years. The average annual growth is determined by comparing the 2009 and 2015 enrolments. The female and male growth rates are tabulated for each school phase in Table 19.

Several grades have been combined: pre-primary and bridging year as “Pre-Primary”; the diverse technical and vocational courses as “Vocational”; and different year levels and special grades as “Special Grades”.

Enrolment in Grade 0 (Pre-Primary) to Grade 12 is presented in four charts in Figure 20. It should be noted that these charts have different scales.

Changes in the promotion and repetition rates are reported in Table 30. The ‘wave’ of learners created by the change in promotion policy can be followed from grade to grade and year to year. The signifi-cantly highest average annual growth rate was in the pre-primary grade which became part of the Primary phase, followed by Grade 12. For the reader’s benefit, pre-primary has been added to the Lower Primary graph.

Figure 20: Changes in enrolments in Grades 1-12Lower Primary Upper Primary Junior Secondary Senior Secondary


Table 21: Changes in enrolments in the regions from 2009 to 2015 Figure 21: Changes in enrolments in the different regions

RegionYear Enrolment

growth rate 2009-2015

Percentage change

2009-2015

Percentage change

2014-20152009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

//Kharas 18,430 18,907 19,614 20,110 20,624 20,621 21,216 15.1% 2.4% 2.9%

Erongo 28,312 29,259 30,643 32,114 33,860 34,090 36,626 29.4% 4.4% 7.4%

Hardap 20,654 20,985 21,560 21,886 22,364 22,790 23,321 12.9% 2.0% 2.3%

Kavango East - - - - - 49,474 53,155 - - 7.4%

Kavango West 70,567 71,422 73,033 77,314 82,709 35,200 36,250 - - 3.0%

Khomas 67,780 68,678 71,899 73,302 75,881 78,787 81,403 20.1% 3.1% 3.3%

Kunene 17,749 18,684 19,250 20,332 22,133 23,226 25,882 45.8% 6.5% 11.4%

Ohangwena 88,073 88,304 90,379 90,703 91,522 93,357 96,346 9.4% 1.5% 3.2%

Omaheke 15,582 16,138 16,986 18,365 19,452 20,075 20,822 33.6% 5.0% 3.7%

Omusati 86,679 86,400 86,635 86,430 87,256 87,615 88,498 2.1% 0.3% 1.0%

Oshana 52,308 51,586 51,326 50,740 51,495 50,927 52,002 -0.6% -0.1% 2.1%

Oshikoto 58,410 58,674 59,677 60,439 62,007 62,738 64,710 10.8% 1.7% 3.1%

Otjozondjupa 33,317 34,178 35,651 36,284 38,505 39,667 41,705 25.2% 3.8% 5.1%

Zambezi 27,610 28,141 28,974 29,808 30,981 32,145 33,469 21.2% 3.3% 4.1%

National 514,904 519,934 532,594 540,513 556,080 650,712 675,405 31.2% 4.6% 3.8%

The total enrolments in the different regions are reported in Table 21 for seven years. Like other tables in this report, Table 21 was calculated according to the 2013 demarcation of regions. Between 2009 and 2015, the school population grew the most in Kunene (6.5%), Erongo (4.4%), Omaheke (5.0%) and Otjozondjupa (3.8%). Kunene (11.4%) Erongo (7.4%) and Otjozondjupa (5.1%) had a higher percentage increase between 2014 and 2015. This might be due to the Ministry’s efforts to ensure that learners attend school by providing school-feeding programme and other humanitarian assistance designed to attract and retain learners in schools. This may have resulted in more learners from marginalised groups accessing education in Kunene. In Erongo and Otjozondjupa, increased mining activities may be behind the enrolment increase. The “Back to School” campaigns in the regions as well as the elimination of the School Development Fund and the introduction of Pre-Primary into formal schooling might have also positively contributed to the observed increase in enrolment rates in the analysed period.

Please note that the figures for Kavango West for the years 2009 to 2013 represent the former Kavango Region (which was split into two regions in August 2013), therefore the drop observed for Kavango West is artificial.

Chapter 3: THE FLOW OF LEARNERS 31

Chapter 3: THE FLOW OF LEARNERSIdeally, a learner enters Grade 1 at 6 years of age, and proceeds through the schooling cycle – comprising the Primary and Secondary

phases – to reach Grade 12 at the age of 17 or 18. However, this progression can be interrupted or retarded by a learner repeating one or more grades or dropping out of school before completing the cycle. For a learner leaving school before having acquired at least basic literacy and numeracy skills, there are at least two consequences: the loss of the opportunity to acquire the skills needed for further learning, and the loss of the resources allocated to that learner, which could have benefited another learner. Frequent repetition leads to a high proportion of learners in a class being over-age. For this reason, statistics on the ages of learners are included in this chapter. Learners may also be over-age because they started school at a late age, or because they left school for one or more years and then returned to school. Repetition and early school-leaving are measurable indications of wastage in the education system. Other forms of wastage, such as the goals of the curriculum not being achieved as a result of various deficiencies in the system, are often difficult to quantify.

Measures of flow are usually described using promotion, repetition and school-leaving rates. Promotion rates are calculated by dividing the numbers of new entrants to a grade in 2015 by the number of learners enrolled in the previous grade in 2014. The rates given here are thus for 2014, being the proportion of learners enrolled in 2015 who were promoted and continued schooling in 2015. Likewise, repetition rates reported here are for 2014, being the number of learners repeating a grade in 2015 divided by the total number of learners in the same grade in 2014.

Both promotion and repetition rates are calculated from the actual numbers of promotees and repeaters reported. School-leaving rates are calculated by assuming that the numbers of learners in a grade in 2014 which are not accounted for by repeaters in the same grade or promotees in the next grade in 2015 represent the numbers of learners who have left school.

The calculation of repetition rates here includes re-entrants as repeaters. Re-entrants are learners who left school at some time previously and started the same grade again in 2015. These learners are thus treated as repeaters and not as permanent school-leavers.

The survival rate shows the cumulative effect of the promotion, repetition and school-leaving rates.

Rates of enrolment are presented for 2015. These are estimates calculated by comparing the actual number of learners in school of each age group with the projected number of people of that age group in Namibia. These projected numbers are based on the 2011 Population and Housing Census. In terms of Namibia’s Constitution, every child should be at school until they complete Grade 7 or reach the age of 16, whichever comes first. Rates of enrolment provide measures of how well this goal is being met.

Estimates of flow rates are most accurate if migration into or out of the country is minimal. Flow rates for the regions would assume minimal migration between regions. There seems to have been considerable migration of learners between regions, but no migration figures are available at the level of detail required for the calculations, thus regional flow rates are not reported.


Table 22: Pre-primary enrolment by region, age and gender

Region Gender Average age

AgeTotal 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

//Kharas Total 5.7 1,442 501 923 18 - - - - - - - - - - - -Females 5.7 770 257 501 12 - - - - - - - - - - - -Males 5.6 672 244 422 6 - - - - - - - - - - - -

Erongo Total 5.8 1,722 479 1,187 54 1 - 1 - - - - - - - - -Females 5.8 892 228 641 22 1 - - - - - - - - - - -Males 5.7 830 251 546 32 - - 1 - - - - - - - - -

Hardap Total 5.8 1,397 307 1,062 26 1 1 - - - - - - - - - -Females 5.8 694 148 531 14 - 1 - - - - - - - - - -Males 5.8 703 159 531 12 1 - - - - - - - - - - -

Kavango East Total 5.7 1,943 624 1,241 70 3 5 - - - - - - - - - -Females 5.7 1,028 323 672 30 - 3 - - - - - - - - - -Males 5.7 915 301 569 40 3 2 - - - - - - - - - -

Kavango West Total 5.8 1,925 448 1,367 90 17 2 - 1 - - - - - - - -Females 5.8 978 229 700 43 6 - - - - - - - - - - -Males 5.9 947 219 667 47 11 2 - 1 - - - - - - - -

Khomas Total 5.7 3,951 1,594 2,174 150 21 12 - - - - - - - - - -Females 5.6 2,010 817 1,111 67 9 6 - - - - - - - - - -Males 5.7 1,941 777 1,063 83 12 6 - - - - - 3 - - - -

Kunene Total 6.0 1,677 201 1,347 73 20 13 8 6 3 3 - 2 - - - -Females 6.0 844 109 674 34 13 5 2 4 - 1 - 1 - - - -Males 6.1 833 92 673 39 7 8 6 2 3 2 5 11 8 5 1 2

Ohangwena Total 5.7 3,576 913 2,517 104 6 - 2 - - 2 1 5 4 2 1 1Females 5.7 1,795 453 1,274 47 4 - 1 - - 2 4 6 4 3 - 1Males 5.7 1,781 460 1,243 57 2 - 1 - - - - - 30 - - -

Omaheke Total 5.7 1,110 194 842 9 30 4 - - - 1 - - 15 - - -Females 5.7 541 97 409 5 12 2 - - - 1 - - 15 - - -Males 5.8 569 97 433 4 18 2 - - - - 1 - - - - -

Omusati Total 5.9 3,371 624 2,646 78 17 - 2 2 - 1 1 - - - - -Females 5.9 1,681 301 1,339 32 5 - 2 1 - 1 - - - - - -Males 5.8 1,690 323 1,307 46 12 - - 1 - - 1 - - - - -


Table 22 continued

The numbers of pre-primary learners by region, age and gender are recorded in Table 22. Average ages have been calculated. The average age of learners was 5.8 nationally. The differences in average ages did not vary significantly across regions, nor between females and males in any of the regions.

The age distribution of female and male pre-school entrants is shown graphically in Figure 22.

Most learners entered pre-primary school at 6 years of age, but considerable numbers enrolled in school for the first time at the age of 5 or 7. Out of all pre-school enrolments, 1.1% were 8 years old or older. The enrolment figures are expected to continue to grow as more pre-primary grades are introduced in public schools.

Figure 22: Ages of female and male pre-school learners

Region Gender Average age

AgeTotal 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Oshana Total 5.8 2,683 680 1,923 53 12 9 5 1 - - - - - - - -Females 5.8 1,369 352 975 27 7 4 3 1 - - - - - - - -Males 5.8 1,314 328 948 26 5 5 2 - - - - - - - - -

Oshikoto Total 5.8 3,422 767 2,577 72 1 2 2 1 - - - - - - - -Females 5.8 1,718 405 1,280 33 - - - - - - - - - - - -Males 5.8 1,704 362 1,297 39 1 2 2 1 - - - - - - - -

Otjozondjupa Total 5.9 2,250 410 1,766 46 6 22 - - - - - - - - - -Females 5.9 1,130 203 890 22 2 13 - - - - - - - - - -Males 5.9 1,120 207 876 24 4 9 - - - - - - - - - -

Zambezi Total 5.8 2,284 511 1,706 43 24 - - - - - - - - - - -Females 5.8 1,178 260 882 22 14 - - - - - - - - - - -Males 5.8 1,106 251 824 21 10 - - - - - - - - - - -

National Total 5.8 32,753 8,253 23,278 886 159 70 20 11 3 7 6 14 38 5 1 2Females 5.8 16,628 4,182 11,879 410 73 34 8 6 - 5 1 7 19 2 1 1Males 5.8 16,125 4,071 11,399 476 86 36 12 5 3 2 5 7 19 3 - 1


Table 23: Apparent intake rates of Grade 1 learners from 2009 to 2015

GenderYear

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015Total 104.3% 103.3% 107.0% 111.4% 119.4% 115.1% 115.0%Females 104.2% 103.0% 106.9% 111.7% 120.5% 116.1% 115.7%Males 104.4% 103.6% 107.2% 111.2% 118.5% 114.2% 114.3%

Table 23 shows the apparent intake rate over seven years. The apparent intake rate is a measure of the number of new enrolments in Grade 1 in comparison to the appropriately aged (7-year-old) population. There are three possible reasons for the high rates: enrolment of over-aged learners, or over-reporting by schools, or population under-estimation.

Figure 23: Apparent intake rates

Table 24: Changes in the numbers of new Grade 1 entrants from 2009 to 2015

RegionYear Average

annual growth rate 2009-2015

Percentage change

2014-20152009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

//Kharas 1,646 1,806 1,740 1,805 1,970 1,833 1,879 2.2% 2.5%Erongo 2,619 2,686 2,919 3,118 3,356 3,316 2,992 2.2% -9.8%Hardap 1,868 2,039 1,999 2,092 2,110 2,152 2,232 3.0% 3.7%Kavango East 3,612 3,771 3,862 4,301 4,683 5,154 5,691 7.9% 10.4%Kavango West 3,611 3,770 3,862 4,300 4,682 3,961 4,087 2.1% 3.2%Khomas 6,167 6,018 6,534 6,890 7,119 7,563 7,887 4.2% 4.3%Kunene 2,495 2,388 2,375 2,481 2,670 2,750 3,309 4.8% 20.3%Ohangwena 7,068 7,347 7,409 7,788 7,712 8,033 8,302 2.7% 3.3%Omaheke 1,677 1,756 1,869 2,372 2,373 2,074 2,173 4.4% 4.8%Omusati 6,416 6,459 6,572 6,881 7,146 7,185 7,431 2.5% 3.4%Oshana 3,703 3,718 3,623 3,912 3,892 4,068 4,230 2.2% 4.0%Oshikoto 4,744 4,714 4,600 4,989 5,221 5,229 5,594 2.8% 7.0%Otjozondjupa 3,455 3,309 3,727 3,874 4,180 4,079 4,357 3.9% 6.8%Zambezi 2,326 2,405 2,497 2,625 2,652 2,775 2,943 4.0% 6.1%National 51,407 52,186 53,588 57,428 59,766 60,172 63,107 3.5% 4.9%

Table 24 shows the numbers of new entrants to Grade 1 from 2009 to 2015. The average growth rate is calculated by comparing the numbers in the first and last year of the period (2009-2015). The figures for Kavango East and Kavango West are artificial for the years 2009-2013 as these regions did not exist before August 2013 when Kavango Region was split into two. For ease of calculation, the figures for the former Kavango Region were simply divided by two. Real numbers for the two Kavango regions are provided only for 2014 and 2015. Kunene Region recorded the highest percentage intake in the years 2014-2015, at 20.3%.

Figure 24: Changes in the numbers of new Grade 1 enrolments


Table 25: Ages of all learners

The numbers of learners per age group are tabulated in Table 25. The learners who entered school at the age of 7 and never repeated are considered to be appropriately aged. The numbers representing appropriately aged learners are shaded in the table for all grades. Figure 25 shows the age distributions in all grades graphically.

The two measures for learners who by far exceed the appropriate age for their grade are: the number of learners older than 16 in primary grades, at 10,545 (2.4%) in 2015; and the number of learners aged 25 or older and still at school, at 412 (0.01%).

If learners entered school at the age of 7 and did not repeat more than once in the Lower Primary phase, or more than once in Upper Primary or in Junior Secondary, then they would not be more than one year older than the appropriate age in Lower Primary, or more than two years older than the appropriate age in Upper Primary, or more than three years older than the appropriate age in Secondary. There were 114,746 learners in Grades 0-12, or 18.0% of all learners in these grades, who were too old for their grade according to this criterion.

Figure 25: Distribution of learners’ ages in Grades 1-12

GradeAge

Total 5 or less 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 or

moreTotal 675,405 8,345 33,594 52,368 55,624 54,642 54,029 50,506 50,111 49,202 48,357 50,147 46,440 42,858 32,944 21,158 12,385 6,848 3,396 1,493 546 412Pre-Primary 32,753 8,253 23,278 886 159 70 20 11 3 7 6 14 38 5 1 2 - - - - - -Grade 1 78,107 73 10,150 45,088 15,278 4,219 1,609 717 383 258 119 70 47 43 24 15 10 2 1 1 - -Grade 2 68,023 7 108 6,280 34,606 16,205 6,215 2,323 1,102 558 284 190 55 42 39 4 3 1 - 1 - -Grade 3 64,196 12 26 84 5,302 28,921 16,556 6,771 3,311 1,601 805 470 205 74 40 10 7 - 1 - - -Grade 4 61,476 - 1 1 143 5,008 25,085 15,372 7,770 4,015 1,982 1,192 497 234 92 52 20 3 3 3 1 2Grade 5 64,632 - 3 - 36 59 4,112 21,512 16,228 10,345 5,901 3,585 1,679 710 276 104 47 18 10 1 3 3Grade 6 55,621 - - - 1 21 107 3,468 17,830 13,135 8,994 5,949 3,351 1,612 687 270 126 39 17 7 5 2Grade 7 51,194 - 2 3 1 - 7 112 3,239 16,053 11,515 8,807 5,574 3,174 1,553 709 263 114 36 25 4 3Grade 8 64,660 - 10 1 6 1 113 - 80 2,930 15,652 14,531 12,098 9,065 5,161 2,876 1,310 533 186 69 25 13Grade 9 50,461 - - - 7 - - 9 3 106 2,632 12,255 9,986 8,718 6,480 4,822 2,855 1,462 664 289 99 74Grade 10 38,257 - - - - - - - - 8 132 2,570 10,332 9,018 6,181 4,318 2,664 1,641 833 338 130 92Grade 11 22,418 - - - - - - - - - 1 80 2,063 7,652 5,155 3,232 2,027 1,168 601 256 87 96Grade 12 20,198 - - - - - - - - - - - 78 2,113 6,889 4,521 2,952 1,818 1,024 494 185 124Other grades 3,409 - 16 25 85 138 205 211 162 186 334 434 437 398 366 223 101 49 20 9 7 3


Table 26: Distribution of learners by age and gender for each grade in 2015

Figure 26: Age distribution of learners by age and gender for specific gradesFigure 26 shows the age distribu-tions by gender in the first grade of each school phase. On average, more males than females repeated a grade or dropped out of school and then returned, and males on average started school at a slightly older age than their female counter-parts. These factors have resulted in wider age distri bu tions for males.

Grade 1 Grade 5 Grade 8 Grade 11

Grade GenderAge

Total 5 or younger 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 or

moreTotal Female 338,739 4,226 17,093 26,579 28,335 27,835 27,426 25,580 25,424 24,919 24,556 25,383 23,625 21,368 16,188 9,771 5,303 2,815 1,345 564 220 184

Male 336,666 4,119 16,501 25,789 27,289 26,807 26,603 24,926 24,687 24,283 23,801 24,764 22,815 21,490 16,756 11,387 7,082 4,033 2,051 929 326 228Pre-Primary Female 16,628 4,182 11,879 410 73 34 8 6 - 5 1 7 19 2 1 1 - - - - - -

Male 16,125 4,071 11,399 476 86 36 12 5 3 2 5 7 19 3 - 1 - - - - - -Grade 1 Female 37,718 37 5,129 22,541 6,760 1,812 698 329 169 116 45 30 16 23 7 3 - 2 1 - - -

Male 40,389 36 5,021 22,547 8,518 2,407 911 388 214 142 74 40 31 20 17 12 10 - - 1 - -Grade 2 Female 33,413 1 64 3,570 18,284 7,148 2,529 913 444 212 128 76 21 10 10 1 2 - - - - -

Male 34,610 6 44 2,710 16,322 9,057 3,686 1,410 658 346 156 114 34 32 29 3 1 1 - 1 - -Grade 3 Female 31,631 6 9 42 3,064 15,806 7,496 2,739 1,311 607 294 151 64 25 13 2 2 - - - - -

Male 32,565 6 17 42 2,238 13,115 9,060 4,032 2,000 994 511 319 141 49 27 8 5 - 1 - - -Grade 4 Female 29,903 - - - 84 2,931 14,013 6,970 3,056 1,519 689 360 164 78 23 9 5 2 - - - -

Male 31,573 - 1 1 59 2,077 11,072 8,402 4,714 2,496 1,293 832 333 156 69 43 15 1 3 3 1 2Grade 5 Female 31,220 - 1 - 28 37 2,473 12,322 7,769 4,222 2,207 1,279 544 221 68 24 14 7 2 - - 2

Male 33,412 - 2 - 8 22 1,639 9,190 8,459 6,123 3,694 2,306 1,135 489 208 80 33 11 8 1 3 1Grade 6 Female 27,757 - - - - 11 64 2,139 10,570 6,676 3,936 2,331 1,188 524 184 72 40 14 4 1 3 -

Male 27,864 - - - 1 10 43 1,329 7,260 6,459 5,058 3,618 2,163 1,088 503 198 86 25 13 6 2 2Grade 7 Female 25,785 - 1 3 - - 6 73 1,994 9,551 5,894 3,989 2,246 1,152 518 216 80 33 16 13 - -

Male 25,409 - 1 - 1 - 1 39 1,245 6,502 5,621 4,818 3,328 2,022 1,035 493 183 81 20 12 4 3Grade 8 Female 32,861 - 4 - 3 1 65 - 47 1,864 9,421 7,772 5,932 3,896 2,063 1,063 445 185 64 21 12 3

Male 31,799 - 6 1 3 - 48 - 33 1,066 6,231 6,759 6,166 5,169 3,098 1,813 865 348 122 48 13 10Grade 9 Female 26,607 - - - 4 - - 4 1 66 1,696 7,442 5,442 4,379 3,100 2,195 1,248 559 285 118 37 31

Male 23,854 - - - 3 - - 5 2 40 936 4,813 4,544 4,339 3,380 2,627 1,607 903 379 171 62 43Grade 10 Female 20,731 - - - - - - - - 5 80 1,677 6,335 4,983 3,194 2,055 1,181 671 317 125 62 46

Male 17,526 - - - - - - - - 3 52 893 3,997 4,035 2,987 2,263 1,483 970 516 213 68 46Grade 11 Female 12,127 - - - - - - - - - 1 58 1,382 4,576 2,743 1,565 880 504 225 109 36 48

Male 10,291 - - - - - - - - - - 22 681 3,076 2,412 1,667 1,147 664 376 147 51 48Grade 12 Female 10,831 - - - - - - - - - - - 49 1,337 4,104 2,451 1,353 817 427 172 68 53

Male 9,367 - - - - - - - - - - - 29 776 2,785 2,070 1,599 1,001 597 322 117 71Other Female 1,527 - 6 13 35 55 74 85 63 76 164 211 223 162 160 114 53 21 4 5 2 1

Male 1,882 - 10 12 50 83 131 126 99 110 170 223 214 236 206 109 48 28 16 4 5 2


Table 27: Rates of enrolment of 6-year-olds to 18-year-olds

Table 27 continues

School Phase GradeAge

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18TotalTotal 56.8% 90.4% 97.8% 97.5% 97.7% 92.3% 92.3% 91.0% 89.7% 93.3% 86.6% 80.2% 62.0%Lower Primary Grade 1 17.2% 77.8% 26.9% 7.5% 2.9% 1.3% 0.7% 0.5% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0%

Grade 2 0.2% 10.8% 60.8% 28.9% 11.2% 4.2% 2.0% 1.0% 0.5% 0.4% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1%Grade 3 0.0% 0.1% 9.3% 51.6% 29.9% 12.4% 6.1% 3.0% 1.5% 0.9% 0.4% 0.1% 0.1%Grade 4 0.0% 0.0% 0.3% 8.9% 45.3% 28.1% 14.3% 7.4% 3.7% 2.2% 0.9% 0.4% 0.2%

Upper Primary Grade 5 0.0% - 0.1% 0.1% 7.4% 39.3% 29.9% 19.1% 10.9% 6.7% 3.1% 1.3% 0.5%Grade 6 - - 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 6.3% 32.8% 24.3% 16.7% 11.1% 6.3% 3.0% 1.3%Grade 7 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% - 0.0% 0.2% 6.0% 29.7% 21.4% 16.4% 10.4% 5.9% 2.9%

Junior Secondary Grade 8 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% - 0.1% 5.4% 29.0% 27.0% 22.6% 17.0% 9.7%Grade 9 - - 0.0% - - 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 4.9% 22.8% 18.6% 16.3% 12.2%Grade 10 - - - - - - - 0.0% 0.2% 4.8% 19.3% 16.9% 11.6%

Senior Secondary Grade 11 - - - - - - - - 0.0% 0.1% 3.8% 14.3% 9.7%Grade 12 - - - - - - - - - - 0.1% 4.0% 13.0%

Other grades 39.4% 1.6% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.3% 0.4% 0.6% 0.8% 0.9% 0.8% 0.7%FemalesTotal 58.0% 92.0% 99.8% 99.5% 99.2% 93.4% 93.5% 92.1% 91.0% 94.2% 87.9% 79.7% 60.7%Lower Primary Grade 1 17.4% 78.0% 23.8% 6.5% 2.5% 1.2% 0.6% 0.4% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0%

Grade 2 0.2% 12.4% 64.4% 25.5% 9.1% 3.3% 1.6% 0.8% 0.5% 0.3% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%Grade 3 0.0% 0.1% 10.8% 56.5% 27.1% 10.0% 4.8% 2.2% 1.1% 0.6% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%Grade 4 - - 0.3% 10.5% 50.7% 25.5% 11.2% 5.6% 2.6% 1.3% 0.6% 0.3% 0.1%

Upper Primary Grade 5 0.0% - 0.1% 0.1% 8.9% 45.0% 28.6% 15.6% 8.2% 4.7% 2.0% 0.8% 0.3%Grade 6 - - - 0.0% 0.2% 7.8% 38.9% 24.7% 14.6% 8.7% 4.4% 2.0% 0.7%Grade 7 0.0% 0.0% - - 0.0% 0.3% 7.3% 35.3% 21.8% 14.8% 8.4% 4.3% 1.9%

Junior Secondary Grade 8 0.0% - 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% - 0.2% 6.9% 34.9% 28.9% 22.1% 14.5% 7.7%Grade 9 - - 0.0% - - 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 6.3% 27.6% 20.2% 16.3% 11.6%Grade 10 - - - - - - - 0.0% 0.3% 6.2% 23.6% 18.6% 12.0%

Senior Secondary Grade 11 - - - - - - - - 0.0% 0.2% 5.1% 17.1% 10.3%Grade 12 - - - - - - - - - - 0.2% 5.0% 15.4%

Other grades 40.3% 1.5% 0.4% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.2% 0.3% 0.6% 0.8% 0.9% 0.6% 0.6%


The percentages of each age cohort enrolled in the different grades are reported in Table 27. These numbers are based on the population projections provided by the UN Population Division.

For each age group, the number of learners enrolled in a particular grade is divided by the number of people of the same age in the total projected population. For example, there were 45,989 7-year-old learners enrolled in Grade 1, and 57,926 7-year-olds in the population. Therefore, 45,989 divided by 57,926 or 77.8% of the 7-year-old population were enrolled in Grade 1. By law, children can only enrol in Grade 1 if they are 6 years of age before 1 January of the year in which they are enrolling in Grade 1.

By law, children can only enrol in Grade 1 if they are 6 years of age before 1 January of the year in which they are enrolling in Grade 1. Therefore, the majority of learners who turned 6 after 31 December 2014 could not be taken into Grade 1 in the year under review. In Namibia the official theoretical age for Grade 1 is 7 years. Most of the 6-year-olds in Grade 1 are enrolled in private schools.

The totals of the percentages enrolled in the different grades indicate the percentage of each age group enrolled in school. For some ages these totals exceed 100%, which is most likely due to an under-estimation of the size of the population of the particular age, but it could also be due to a higher number of immigrants in Namibian schools as of recently.

Table 27 continued

School Phase GradeAge

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18MalesTotal 55.6% 88.8% 95.8% 95.6% 96.1% 91.1% 91.0% 90.0% 88.5% 92.4% 85.4% 80.8% 63.4%Lower Primary Grade 1 16.9% 77.6% 29.9% 8.6% 3.3% 1.4% 0.8% 0.5% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1%

Grade 2 0.1% 9.3% 57.3% 32.3% 13.3% 5.2% 2.4% 1.3% 0.6% 0.4% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1%Grade 3 0.1% 0.1% 7.9% 46.8% 32.7% 14.7% 7.4% 3.7% 1.9% 1.2% 0.5% 0.2% 0.1%Grade 4 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 7.4% 40.0% 30.7% 17.4% 9.2% 4.8% 3.1% 1.2% 0.6% 0.3%

Upper Primary Grade 5 0.0% - 0.0% 0.1% 5.9% 33.6% 31.2% 22.7% 13.7% 8.6% 4.2% 1.8% 0.8%Grade 6 - - 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 4.9% 26.8% 23.9% 18.8% 13.5% 8.1% 4.1% 1.9%Grade 7 0.0% - 0.0% - 0.0% 0.1% 4.6% 24.1% 20.9% 18.0% 12.5% 7.6% 3.9%

Junior Secondary Grade 8 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% - 0.2% - 0.1% 3.9% 23.2% 25.2% 23.1% 19.4% 11.7%Grade 9 - - 0.0% - - 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 3.5% 18.0% 17.0% 16.3% 12.8%Grade 10 - - - - - - - 0.0% 0.2% 3.3% 15.0% 15.2% 11.3%

Senior Secondary Grade 11 - - - - - - - - - 0.1% 2.5% 11.6% 9.1%Grade 12 - - - - - - - - - - 0.1% 2.9% 10.5%

Other grades 38.4% 1.7% 0.5% 0.4% 0.5% 0.5% 0.4% 0.4% 0.7% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 0.8%


Table 28: Net and Gross Enrolment RatiosAge group 7-13 7-16 7-18 14-18Grades Gr. 1-7 Gr. 1-10 Gr. 1-12 Gr. 8-12

Net Enrolment Ratio Total 92.7% 91.9% 88.7% 55.6%Female 94.1% 93.2% 89.8% 60.8%Males 91.4% 90.5% 87.6% 50.3%

Gross Enrolment Ratio Total 113.9% 108.4% 97.3% 73.2%Female 111.8% 108.1% 97.5% 76.8%Males 115.9% 108.6% 97.1% 69.5%

The Net and Gross Enrolment Ratios (NER and GER) are the two most widely reported indicators of the proportion of the school-age population enrolled in school.

The GER is the total enrolment in a range of grades, divided by the number of people in the population of the age that should be enrolled in those grades. GER values over 100% are an indication of under-aged and/or over-aged learners enrolled in the specific school phase. The NER is the number of learners of appropriate age enrolled in a range of grades, divided by the population in the same age group. For example, there were 361,050 learners aged between 7 and 13 enrolled in Grades 1-7 out of 389,287 people in the same age range in the projected population. The NER of 92.7% is 361,050 divided by 389,287.

The total enrolment rates for females and males are charted in Figure 28. The enrolment rates of males have remained lower than those of females in all age groups up to age 17. This observation is in agreement with the higher school-leaving rates reported for males in most grades and years up to Grade 9.

The enrolment rates for different grades show the feature of over-aged learners in a different way than do Tables 25 and 26. Up to the age of 13, the highest percentage of the age cohort were enrolled in the appropriate grade, with 35.0% of 13-year-olds enrolled in Grade 7. This pattern changed for enrolment in higher grades. Out of the 16-year-olds, the highest single percentage (25.4%) were enrolled in Grade 8. The 16-year-olds are actually expected to be in Grade 10 by this age.

Figure 28: Enrolment rates of female and male learners


Table 29: Numbers of new entrants, repeaters and re-entrants in Grades 1-12A distinction is made between new entrants, repeaters and re-entrants in each grade. New entrants are learners who are in their respective grades for the first time, i.e. new enrolments in Grade 1, or learners who were promoted at the end of the previous year and continued school in the next grade. Repeaters are those who repeated a grade. Re-entrants are learners who had left school at some point previously and returned in the year of the census.

The relatively small numbers of re-entrants, constituting less than 0.5% of the total enrolment in all grades, indicates that few of the learners who left school returned at a later stage.

The new entrants, repeaters and re-entrants are charted in Figure 29a. The re-entrants are hardly visible because of the low numbers of them. Grades 1, 5 and 8 have relatively high numbers of repeaters, an indication that the beginning of a new phase always poses some challenges to learners, therefore more effort is required to make sure that the gap is bridged.

Figure 29b shows the percentages of females among the new entrants, repeaters and re-entrants. In Lower Primary the male-to-female ratio is one to one, and as they progress the gap widens, in favour of females, to around 4% in Grade 12.

There is a marked and progressive increase in the percentages of female repeaters and re-entrants after Grade 9, rising to above 50%. The higher repetition rates might indicate a higher commitment among females to completing their education, and the higher number of re-entrants might include females who returned to school after pregnancy.

Figure 29a: Numbers of new entrants, repeaters and re-entrants in each grade

Figure 29b: Percentage of females among new entrants, repeaters and re-entrants in each grade

School phase GradeTotal enrolment New entrants Repeaters Re-entrantsTotal % Female Total % Female Total % Female Total % Female

Total 639,243 50.1% 541,569 51.2% 94,612 43.8% 3,062 53.7%Lower Primary Grade 1 78,107 48.3% 63,114 49.9% 14,495 41.3% 498 43.0%

Grade 2 68,023 49.1% 59,623 50.6% 8,108 38.2% 292 37.3%Grade 3 64,196 49.3% 57,632 50.5% 6,334 38.6% 230 41.0%Grade 4 61,476 48.6% 54,096 50.2% 7,161 37.1% 219 33.6%

Upper Primary Grade 5 64,632 48.3% 51,770 50.6% 12,642 38.9% 220 33.2%Grade 6 55,621 49.9% 48,331 50.9% 7,104 43.3% 186 48.4%Grade 7 51,194 50.4% 46,829 50.7% 4,140 45.7% 225 61.0%

Junior Secondary Grade 8 64,660 50.8% 45,384 52.1% 18,880 47.3% 396 68.4%Grade 9 50,461 52.7% 38,684 52.7% 11,311 52.1% 466 73.8%Grade 10 38,257 54.2% 34,340 53.6% 3,751 58.9% 166 77.7%

Senior Secondary Grade 11 22,418 54.1% 21,664 53.9% 612 57.9% 142 64.8%Grade 12 20,198 53.6% 20,102 53.6% 74 55.4% 22 86.4%


Table 30: Promotion, repetition and school-leaving rates in Grades 1-11 from 2014 to 2015

GradePromotion rates Repetition rates School-leaving rates

Total Females Males Total Females Males Total Females MalesAverage 79.9% 82.0% 77.9% 15.1% 13.5% 16.7% 5.0% 4.5% 5.4%

Grade 1 79.2% 82.8% 75.7% 19.9% 17.0% 22.6% 0.9% 0.2% 1.6%Grade 2 87.6% 90.5% 84.9% 12.8% 10.0% 15.4% -0.4% -0.5% -0.3%Grade 3 89.7% 92.1% 87.4% 10.9% 8.6% 13.1% -0.6% -0.7% -0.5%Grade 4 88.1% 91.4% 84.9% 12.6% 9.5% 15.5% -0.6% -0.9% -0.4%Grade 5 76.4% 80.8% 72.3% 20.3% 16.4% 24.0% 3.3% 2.8% 3.7%Grade 6 84.6% 86.5% 82.8% 13.2% 11.5% 14.8% 2.2% 2.0% 2.3%Grade 7 89.0% 90.7% 87.2% 8.6% 7.8% 9.4% 2.5% 1.5% 3.4%Grade 8 60.7% 62.9% 58.5% 30.3% 28.4% 32.2% 9.0% 8.7% 9.3%Grade 9 69.2% 69.6% 68.8% 23.7% 23.6% 23.9% 7.1% 6.8% 7.4%Grade 10 59.9% 60.0% 59.8% 10.8% 12.0% 9.4% 29.3% 28.0% 30.8%Grade 11 94.6% 94.6% 94.5% 3.5% 3.9% 3.1% 1.9% 1.5% 2.4%

The flow rates of learners are reported in Table 30. These are the rates of learner progression from 2014 to 2015. The grades in the table and figures are the grades that learners attended in 2015. The Grade 1 promotion rate, for example, indicates the percentage of all learners enrolled in Grade 1 in 2014 who were promoted and continued schooling in Grade 2 in 2015. Grade 12 is not included in this table since, for all practical purposes, all Grade 12 learners left school at the end of 2014. Re-entrants were counted as repeaters in the calculation of Table 30. The promotion, repetition and school-leaving rates of all lear ners enrolled in Grades 1-11 are reported in the “Total” columns.

Flow-rate calculations normally assume that negligible numbers of learners enter or leave the system from outside its borders. Calcula-tions per region would be inaccurate, as no numbers on the migration of learners are available. Regions with a high influx of learners would show low or even negative school-leaving rates, since the learners who came into the region would have made up the numbers of actual school leavers. For this reason only national flow rates are reported.

A high number of learners left school after the Junior Secondary Certificate examination (Grade 10), some intending to repeat through the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL). According to Directorate of National Examinations and Assessment (DNEA) results, the Grade 10 promotion rate was 54.3%, but now it is reported as 59.8% due to taking into account the part-time learners who com-pleted Grade 10. Grade 10 has a lower promotion rate because the examination is of a certain standard and is a national examination.

The Grade 7 promotion rate is the transition rate from primary to secondary education, which was 88.9% in 2014-2015. The school-leaving rates in Grades 8 and 9 were higher than those in Grade 7, indicating that a higher percentage of learners made the transition from primary to secondary education than between the first grades of secondary education.

Females had higher promotion rates and lower repetition rates than males up to Grade 8. The opposite was true for higher grades. Up to Grade 8, a higher percentage of males than females left school. An estimate of the cumulative effect of the school-leaving rates, expressed as the percentage of learners reaching different grades, is provided in Table 32.

Figure 30a:Promotion rates of female and male learners

Figure 30b:Repetition rates of female and male learners

Figure 30c:School-leaving rates of female and male learners


Table 31: Promotion, repetition and school leaving rates from 2008 to 2014The rates in Table 31 are based on the enrol-ments in the grades in the left column in the years appearing as column headings. These are the percentages who were promoted at the end of the year, repeated during the next year or left school between the two years.

Figure 31a shows that Grade 8 promotion rates dropped from 66.6% in 2008 to 60.6% in 2014. The changes in other grades were constant on average. The promotion rate for Grade 7 to Grade 10 shows positive growth in the years 2012-2014, which indicates an improvement in the system. Please note that the high percentage in Grade 11 is due to semi-automatic promotion to Grade 12.

Figure 31b shows that Grade 1 repetition rates have marginally declined from 20.8% for 2008 to 19.9% for 2014. Grade 1, Grade 5 and junior secondary grades recorded high repetition rates.

Figure 31c shows that most school-leaving rates have decreased, some drastically. For many years this rate was high in Grade 10, when many learners leave after writing the Junior Secondary Certificate examination, and the decrease is due to learners being allowed since 2008 to repeat Grade 10. The school-leaving rates in Grades 8 and 9 are higher than in Grade 7 – the last year of primary school. The fact that more learners drop out after surviving primary education is an area of concern that requires additional analysis. The low rate in Grade 11 suggests a high number of learners coming in from NAMCOL and additional learners coming back to school after having dropped out in previous years.

Figure 31a:Changes in promotion rates

Figure 31b: Changes in repetition rates

Figure 31c: Changes in school-leaving rates

School Phase GradeYear

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014Promotion ratesLower Primary Grade 1 76.1% 76.7% 76.8% 77.2% 77.2% 77.3% 79.1%

Grade 2 84.4% 85.4% 85.1% 85.8% 86.2% 86.3% 87.5%Grade 3 86.0% 86.0% 87.4% 88.0% 87.9% 88.0% 89.6%Grade 4 85.1% 86.2% 85.8% 86.1% 86.1% 86.1% 87.9%

Upper Primary Grade 5 72.5% 73.6% 75.4% 74.9% 74.8% 74.9% 76.3%Grade 6 82.4% 80.8% 81.5% 82.0% 83.2% 83.3% 84.5%Grade 7 80.8% 81.9% 83.8% 86.0% 86.3% 86.3% 88.9%

Junior Secondary Grade 8 66.6% 65.4% 57.8% 59.2% 59.5% 59.5% 60.6%Grade 9 74.7% 71.8% 65.0% 68.9% 67.4% 67.4% 69.1%Grade 10 55.3% 57.1% 57.5% 55.6% 57.0% 57.0% 59.8%

Senior Secondary Grade 11 98.8% 96.1% 95.9% 94.7% 94.0% 94.0% 94.6%Repetition ratesLower Primary Grade 1 20.8% 20.2% 20.6% 20.3% 21.2% 21.2% 19.9%

Grade 2 14.0% 13.7% 14.1% 14.2% 14.3% 14.3% 12.8%Grade 3 12.9% 12.8% 11.6% 11.7% 11.8% 11.8% 10.9%Grade 4 13.5% 13.1% 13.1% 13.3% 13.6% 13.6% 12.5%



Senior Secondary Grade 11 2.5% 1.8% 2.5% 2.7% 4.4% 4.4% 3.5%School-leaving ratesLower Primary Grade 1 3.1% 3.1% 2.6% 2.4% 1.6% 1.5% 1.0%

Grade 2 1.5% 0.9% 0.8% 0.0% -0.5% -0.6% -0.3%Grade 3 1.1% 1.2% 1.1% 0.3% 0.4% 0.3% -0.4%Grade 4 1.4% 0.7% 1.1% 0.7% 0.3% 0.3% -0.4%



Senior Secondary Grade 11 -1.3% 2.1% 1.6% 2.7% 1.6% 1.6% 1.9%


Table 32: Survival rates to Grades 2-12 from 2008 to 2014

Grade GenderYear

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014Grade 2 Total 96.1% 96.1% 96.7% 96.7% 98.1% 95.6% 98.4%

Females 96.4% 96.8% 97.0% 96.9% 98.4% 96.4% 99.3%Males 95.8% 95.7% 96.5% 96.5% 97.8% 94.7% 97.5%

Grade 3 Total 94.4% 95.1% 95.8% 96.6% 98.8% 93.4% 98.7%Females 95.1% 95.8% 96.4% 97.0% 98.9% 94.5% 99.7%Males 93.7% 94.6% 95.2% 96.2% 98.6% 92.2% 97.6%










The survival rate to a specific grade indicates the percentage of learners expected to stay in school until reaching at least that particular grade. This indicator is based on the promotion, repetition and school-leaving rates between two consecutive years only. Survival rates should be interpreted as follows: ‘If the flow rates remain constant for all grades, then the said percentage of learners would stay in school until reaching at least the given grade.’ Flow rates do change annually, thus the survival rate should be interpreted as an indicator applying to the transition of learners between two consecutive years. Flow rates are not projections of the percentage of new enrollees who will actually reach a certain grade. Interpreted correctly, the survival rate is a sensitive indicator showing the theoretical cumulative effect of the flow rates between several grades. Its sensitivity causes the indicator to vary rapidly for higher grades.

As in related tables in this chapter, the years in the column headers indicate the first of the two years between which the rates have been calculated. Grade 1 was excluded from the table, as the Grade 1 rate is 100% by definition.

The survival rates were calculated using the artificial cohort method and applying the flow rates in Table 31 to an imaginary cohort of 1,000 learners who entered Grade 1. Returnees were counted as repeaters in this calculation.

The survival rate to Grade 5 is often used as an estimate of the percentage of new Grade 1 entrants who are expected, after leaving school, to retain at least functional literacy for life.

Table 32 shows a consistent higher survival rate for both males and females from Grades 2 to 7. A lower survival rate can be seen from Grades 8 to 12 for the past five years. The lower survival rates of male learners again confirmed that in Namibia, on average, early school-leaving in the Secondary phase was a greater problem among male learners than among female learners.

The survival rate indicator is very sensitive to its exact definition, and this must be noted in comparing rates reported elsewhere.

Figure 32: Changes in the survival rates to Grades 5 and 8Survival rates to Grade 5 Survival rates to Grade 8


Table 33: Approximate numbers of learners who left school between 2008 and 2014

School phase GradeYear

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014Total 46,372 47,701 44,172 49,240 45,775 53,076 44,272Lower Primary Grade 1 2,060 2,014 1,699 1,699 1,070 2,318 756

Grade 2 912 551 474 -9 -361 1,331 -203Grade 3 638 685 635 184 146 743 -269Grade 4 781 389 607 393 155 743 -247

Upper Primary Grade 5 2,715 2,548 2,093 1,982 1,579 2,242 2,174Grade 6 2,012 1,752 2,040 1,574 1,466 1,898 1,317Grade 7 2,714 2,718 2,141 1,634 1,956 2,338 1,353

Junior Secondary Grade 8 4,425 4,384 4,639 5,562 5,548 6,591 5,837Grade 9 3,183 3,224 3,264 3,258 3,681 3,821 3,571Grade 10 11,213 11,820 6,421 12,277 11,191 10,802 10,647

Senior Secondary Grade 11 -233 442 342 532 338 973 405Grade 12 15,952 17,174 19,817 20,226 19,006 19,276 18,931

Table 33 shows the approximate number of learners who left school between 2008 and 2014. An observation from the last five years is that an average of 47,230 learners left school annually. This is due to a number of factors, such as pregnancy, distance and parent demand – see Table 65. There are significantly high numbers of school-leaving learners in Grades 10 and 12, which may be curbed after the introduction of free education which is set to encompass Secondary-phase learners in 2016. Learners who had left school previously and returned later in the same year were counted as school leavers. For this reason, and also because the system for tracking individual learners and the immigration and emigration figures are not yet available, the numbers in Table 33 are ‘approximate’ rather than actual.

The number of learners who left school in each year for the four school phases are charted in Figure 33 as the percentage of the total number of learners who left school in the particular year. It is evident from the chart that the percentage of learners leaving school from across phases varies from grade to grade and has been fluctuating over the years.

Figure 33: Percentage of all school-leavers who left school from different school phases

Documents

Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture NAMIBIA · Education, Arts and Culture (MoEAC), contributed enormously to the production of this EMIS 2015 report by providing the data required