First gentleman Epaphras Ndaitwah says boys lacking behind in education should no longer be viewed as an order of business in society.
Ndaitwah said this during a first-of-its-kind community engagement regarding boys, spearheaded by his office, at Katima Mulilo on Tuesday.
The aim of the initiative is to foster positive masculinity, where boys and young men are encouraged to be more responsible, respectful, emotionally healthy and purposeful members of society.
Ndaitwah said one of the main issues faced by boys is that they are lagging behind in their education.
He said statistics provided by local universities are a testament to this, as during the 2025/26 graduation at the University of Namibia, female graduates were 64.6%, whereas males were 35.4%.
Similarly, at the Namibia University of Science and Technology, females accounted for about 60% of graduates, while males accounted for 40%.
“Out of the 13 doctors who graduated on the same day, only three were males. Hence, a critical question we must ask ourselves is where do we go from here if the trend continues. The whole idea is not aimed at gender competition, but it must be a national education equilibrium where there is not that big parity,” Ndaitwah said.
He adds that other statistics from the education ministry indicate that in 2023, 8 720 boys dropped out of school.
“We must understand that those who dropped out are not just pupils; they were supposed to be future engineers, doctors, entrepreneurs, teachers and leaders that our nation needs the most,” he said.
Ndaitwah added that another issue of concern is high rates of suicide among men, where they account for over 80% of suicides recorded in the country.
“Police reports of 2023/24 indicate that 542 suicide deaths are males and 80 are women. Out of those figures, eight were boys and five were girls,” he said.
Ndaitwah said he hopes the engagements he is going to have across the country will go beyond merely interactions and bring out the root causes of the problems boys are facing as well as provide lasting solutions.
These engagements must also be where positive aspects are identified to enable boys to understand their roles and responsibilities in their communities and families.
