Matheus Hangula

Namibia is one of the countries with a high unemployment number, particularly among graduates roaming the streets with their degrees. 

We have got overcrowded courses at tertiary institutions, for instance when you go to the University of Namibia, the International University of Management (IUM) and others, many students, if they are not doing education, it will be nursing.  Just imagine, we have over three institutions offering these courses.

 This simply means the more the graduates, the more the unemployment rate is likely to be. The other thing that I have realised is that most academics are just job seekers instead of being job creators. 

If the government wants to mitigate unemployment among our graduates, it should pay more attention and consider the importance of vocational schools. 

The reason why African countries are under-developed is because they accepted education systems which do not address the needs of their countries. We are more concentrating on theory education rather than doing things practically. 

Countries like China, America and Russia are ranked with strong economies simply because students are taught to manufacture goods. 

Therefore, we will never be at the same level with them, unless government changes our education system into becoming fully vocational, or goes parallel. 

The other course that has dumped most of our graduates in the street is information technology.

 I don’t know whether we don’t have companies to absorb those graduates who studied IT into the job market, or what is really wrong with it? There is no doubt that vocational education has great benefits. 

Graduates from there also have better standards of living, and contribute greatly to socio-economic development by improving infrastructure in the country. 

In conclusion, government should actually find alternative ways to solve the unemployment crisis amongst graduates in order to avoid another economic crisis.