By Kuvee Kangueehi Windhoek The newly-elected Secretary-General of the DTA Youth League of Namibia, Leslie Tjiriange, has called on the Ministry of Education to allow learners who fail grade 10 to repeat classes. Addressing a press conference yesterday in the capital, Tjiriange said that since independence, the numbers of grade 10 failures according to statistics have increased drastically from year to year. “The DTA Youth League would like to request that grade 10 failures should be allowed to repeat their grades,” Tjiriange said. He noted that the DTA Youth League has observed with concern that most of the grade 10 dropouts turn out to become criminals, and this also leads to an increase in unemployment. “This influences the economy of our country in a very negative way.” The youth leader raised the issue of the founding president, Sam Nujoma, going back to school. “At the moment, the former president at the age of 76 is busy furthering his studies at the University of Namibia. That means education must be important.” He said: “Why should you educate the adults, while you are busy throwing the youth onto the streets?” The Secretary-General requested the government to provide the country’s youth with funds to start their own businesses in order for them to contribute to national development. “We believe the youth of this nation are future leaders of this country and Vision 2030 will be impossible to achieve without educated young people.” Tjiriange appealed to the government not to reject the grade 10 issue because a particular party raised it, but rather consider this as a national concern. Tjiriange added that the DTA Youth League is planning to meet the Minister of Education to take the request to the relevant authorities and to discuss other problems to do with education. Tjiriange also used the opportunity to thank the DTA Youth League representatives from all 13 regions who elected him to be their leader for the next three years. The DTA Youth League held its congress at the Shalom Centre over the weekend of September 1 to 3 during which new leaders were elected.