With the 2022 academic year having come to an end, the directorate of national examinations and assessment has announced it is working tirelessly to finish the marking process, which is halfway done.
“Once they reach a stage of satisfaction, a date for the release of exam results will be announced and communicated thereof,” national examination director Clemmentine Garises updated yesterday upon enquiry.
A total of 38 013 full-time candidates sat for the Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSCO) grade 11 students, while another 32 552 sat for NSSCO part-time during the 2022 national examinations.
Meanwhile, a total of 8 620 full-time candidates sat for the Namibia Senior Secondary Advanced Subsidiary (NSSAS), while 591 learners sat for NSSAS part-time.
The NSSCO and NSSAS form part of the new curriculum that the Namibian government introduced into all government senior secondary schools – almost two years ago.
The NSSCO level is also referred to as Grade 11 (IGCSE).
NSSCO is a two-year course that starts in Grade 10 and ends in Grade 11.
Towards the end of the last phase of the level, learners are expected to have obtained at least three Cs in three of their six subjects to continue to AS level, which replaced Grade 12 under the old curriculum.
Although the final examination results are yet to be released, the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) already opened and started the online loan application process for prospective students who may qualify for tertiary and vocational education – come 2023.
The process opened last week and serves as one of the steps to align the post-school education (secondary schooling) calendar with the government fiscal year.
The challenge NSFAF faces at the moment is the misalignment of institutions of higher learning in Namibia, such as TVET colleges and universities opening in late January or early February.
However, the financial year, which allocates money that is supposed to be used in January and February, only begins on 1 April each year.
Furthermore, as part of the transformed curriculum, the University of Namibia will be offering an attractive advanced subsidiary (AS) incentive package for new students in 2023.
In an interview with New Era recently, Unam assistant director for corporate engagement and international relations Shahid Dickson said AS matriculants or grade 12s of 2022 have a chance to benefit generously from the university upon enrolment.
“The AS learners who will enrol with Unam will be spoiled with choices to choose from, regardless of the programmes or disciplines. An enrolled AS student may choose to either pay no registration fees, get a housing priority or have a 10% tuition fee waiver,” Dickson informed prospective AS students.
The AS level was implemented for the first time in Namibia in 2021 as part of the third basic education change that started in 2012.
This follows the resolutions taken at the 2011 education conference, which include phasing out the Higher International General Certificate of Secondary Education (HIGCSE) in 2010.
Out of the 5 007 learners who sat for the first AS examinations in 2021, the majority obtained grades A to C with the peak at C grade, and only 7.7% of learners are ungraded in all subjects.
– anakale@nepc.com.na