The government will reintroduce the trimester system next year.
The system was dropped in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw the introduction of e-learning and two school semesters.
Executive director of education, arts and culture Sanet Steenkamp yesterday confirmed this development.
She was speaking to Desert FM at the start of the academic year for Namibia’s high school and primary school pupils.
2025 is the year of transition . . . it means we are working with our education offices to return to the trimester system and there’s also a lot of indirect and direct funding involved here,” Steenkamp said.
She said about 900 000 pupils were expected at 2 036 schools countrywide, with 33 332 teachers attending to them.
Steenkamp said the ministry will implement a ‘cohort’ system, involving that one cohort goes to school in the mornings and one in the afternoons for the junior primary phase.
This is to reduce the pupil-to-teacher ratio, overcrowding of classrooms and influx of pupils in schools, she said.
“I think this is a great sense of readiness and everybody is excited,” she said.
Steenkamp said some pupils did not apply and were reconsidered by regional offices – contributing to these numbers.
She said the ministry has advertised 614 teaching positions countrywide.
The ministry further built 1 022 classrooms in two years, she said.
“We have constructed a lot of classrooms through exemption by the minister of finance and public enterprises.
The regional directorates and regional councils are continuing to construct ablution facilities,” Steenkamp said.
She said the classrooms built would not be sufficient to align with the growing number of pupils.

Steenkamp highlighted the inauguration of the Okongo library at Ongwediva and the inauguration of Eenhana’s regional office. She said new schools opened at Otavi and Swakopmund.
“We have another school opening up that is almost ready . . . at Henties Bay,” she said.
Steenkamp said a new school opened at Rehoboth yesterday, where minister of justice Yvonne Dausab was one of the speakers.
The executive director called on all pupils from pre-primary grades up to Advanced Subsidiary level to embrace this year and make the best of it.
She said they should be respectful and disciplined and love their teachers and parents. Steenkamp said pupils must set goals for themselves goals in the beginning of the year and keep track of them.
“We must understand we are from different backgrounds and households and we have different needs, so we should not be bullying each other, but rather be understanding,” she said.
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