Khomas ‘surprises’ with top performance

The Khomas region yesterday scooped the top spot for regions in the 2023 Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary (NSSCO) and National Senior Secondary Advanced Subsidiary (NSSCAS) examination results.

Minister of education, arts and culture Anna Nghipondoka has described this as “a surprise”.

“It is a surprise, you will not believe it, rating number one this year is the Khomas region, and last year it was Kavango East,” she said at the announcement of the results in Windhoek yesterday.

The Khomas region was followed by the Kavango East region, the //Kharas region, the Oshikoto region, and the Kavango West region.

Khomas education director Paulus Nghikembua said the region’s results are due to its efforts.

“We have done so well as a region. My first reaction was wow, we have done it, and this is a build-up of different activities we’ve been doing.

“We did not start today or yesterday or the year before, but it is a build-up of different efforts schools have made,” Nghikembua said.

He said he believes the region can do better still, and will continue to work hard.

Nghipondoka said in terms of the number of candidates qualifying to proceed to advanced subsidiary (AS) level, Khomas also leads with 1 610 pupils.

This was followed by the Omusati region, of which 1 361 pupils qualified, the Ohangwena region with 1 210 qualifying, the Oshikoto region with 1 193, and the Kavango East region with 1 012 pupils qualifying for AS level.

Among the poorest performing regions were the //Kharas region, with 350 pupils, the Kavango West region with 347 pupils, the Hardap with 232 pupils, the Omaheke region with 173, and the Kunene region with only 159 pupils qualifying for AS level.

The Kavango East region was the top-performing region nationally in 2022, followed by the //Kharas, Khomas, Erongo and Otjozondjupa regions.

“Notwithstanding the fact that the ministry promotes positive competition, we are cautioning the teachers, schools/centres and regions to work hard to improve on their performance and rankings, and to refrain from dishonest ways.

“To conclude the reporting on the performance at ordinary level for 2023, as a ministry we are happy to announce that 88% of full-time candidates’ entries were graded,” Nghipondoka said.

She said although some candidates will proceed to tertiary institutions with their NSSCO results, a total of 8 138 full-time and 935 part-time candidates registered for NSSCAS level for 2023’s national examinations.

“In total, 132 full-time and 20 part-time centres catered for NSSCAS candidates in 2023. The full-time centres increased by 33 centres, whereas the part-time centres dropped from 23 to 20 centres,” she said.