WINDHOEK – The Khomas education directorate has revealed that out of 4 838 learners who sat for Grade 9 examinations in 2018, 1 119 could not be promoted to Grade 10 this year due to failure.
This means that only 3 719 learners were promoted to Grade 10 this year.
This was revealed by Khomas Education Director Gerald Vries on the latest development regarding Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners’ placements in the region.
He said the 15th school day statistics for 2019 academic year places the learner total within Khomas Region at 89 346.
Vries noted the Khomas Region annually experiences an increase in the learner totals ranging from five to seven percent.
“This reality constrains the available physical facilities such as classrooms, ablutions and hostels, which results [from] an oversupply of learners. The entire placement process for Grade 8 was planned since July 2018,” he said.
For Grade 8 placement, statistics reveal that learners registered on the Khomas regional database number 5 865, of which 4 724 learners were placed in 2018, 452 were allocated places from January 10 to 16, while 688 were not placed until last week. Vries said the placement challenge was compounded by the grades 8 and 9 results of 2018 flowing from the implementation of the revised curriculum, adding that this created a bottleneck in grades 8 and 9.
He said a total number of 6 613 learners were in Grade 8 in 2018, and a total of 4 852 learners were promoted to Grade 9 this year while 1 761 were not promoted. He maintained Khomas Region remains the foremost locale for parents or guardians to seek employment and opportunities for learners and as a result the region faces challenges on a perennial basis to accommodate learners in a limited number of primary and secondary schools.
He furthermore explained the progress of the 540 Grade 1 learners that have been registered in Khomas Region for placement since October 2018 – January 2019.
Statistics show that out of the 540 Grade 1s registered, 322 learners were placed by the directorate, 161 were learners whose parents or guardians secured placement themselves, while two of them were too young and 55 still needed to be placed.