- Three in four Namibians have secondary (53%) or post-secondary (22%) education, while only 5% have no formal schooling.
- Educational attainment is lower among rural and elderly citizens than among their urban and younger counterparts, and rises with economic status.
- Fewer than half (47%) of surveyed enumeration areas (EAs) have at least one public or private school within easy walking distance, with schools more commonly accessible in rural areas (50%) than in cities (45%).
- In 2021, 36% of respondents said they had contact with a public school in the year leading up to the survey. Among these respondents:
- About three-fourths (74%) said they found it easy to obtain the services they needed. Poor and uneducated individuals were especially likely to encounter difficulties.
- More than one in 10 (13%) said they paid a bribe to access school services.
- And while more than half (56%) said they felt respected by teachers and school officials, 43% did not.
- About half (49%) of adult citizens say school-age children who are not in school are a “somewhat frequent” or “very frequent” problem in their community.
- One in 10 Namibians (9%) say girls are “often” or “always” prevented from attending school because their families prioritise boys’ education.
- About three times as many (26%) say schoolgirls frequently face discrimination, harassment, and requests for sexual favours from their teachers.
- Education ranks as the second-most-important problem that Namibians want their government to address, up from seventh place in 2021. Only unemployment places higher on the citizens’ agenda.
- More than six in 10 respondents (62%) give their government poor marks on education, an increase of 42 percentage points since 2014.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. In pursuit of this goal, the Namibian government has adopted policies and legal frameworks aimed at improving access to education, including the Sector Policy on Inclusive Education (introduced in 2013) and the Basic Education Act (introduced in 2023) (Ministry of Education, 2013; Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, 2023a).
The government introduced free universal primary and secondary education in 2013 and 2016, respectively (UNICEF, 2022), and reports a significant increase in school enrolment, especially among marginalised and vulnerable children. Between 2017 and 2023, enrolment grew by 2.9% per year on average in primary school and 2.1% in secondary school (Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, 2023b). While these increases indicate expanded participation in the education system, changes in enrolment numbers may also reflect population growth and a revised curriculum for basic education, which has improved the flow of learners across education phases (Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, 2023b). Building on these reforms, the government announced free tertiary education for first-time undergraduate and technical/vocational education and training students, to take effect in 2026. However, some critics fear that minimum standards for tertiary-education providers may exclude many prospective beneficiaries from the policy (Albertz, 2025).
The Namibian government devotes a significant share of its budget to education: For the 2025/2026 fiscal year, it allocated N$24.8 billion (U.S. $1.5 billion) to education, 23.4% of the national budget, equivalent to 8.9% of gross domestic product (GDP). This exceeds the minimum international targets of 20% of the national budget (as per the Dakar Declaration) and 6% of GDP (as per the SDG 4 benchmark) (Ministry of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sports, Arts, and Culture, 2025).
Despite policy measures and sustained investment, Namibia’s education system continues to face major challenges related to access, quality, and learner retention. In many rural and remote areas, children must travel long distances to school, and many schools lack basic infrastructure such as electricity, water, sanitation facilities, adequate classrooms, and sufficient teaching and learning materials (Jere, Jere, & Hlatywayo, 2025).
Concerns about education quality remain pronounced. According to Minister of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sport, Arts and Culture Sanet Steenkamp, only 28% of Grade 3 learners achieved the minimum 40% literacy benchmark in 2024, while just 3% scored above 75%. Performance in numeracy was also poor, with only 5% of learners reaching the 75% benchmark (Brief, 2025). High repetition and dropout rates further highlight the lack of learning in schools. The 2023 Education Management Information System report recorded repetition rates of 17.2% among Grade 1s, 19% among Grade 4s, 21.9% among Grade 8s, and 25.4% among Grade 10s. It indicated that in 2022, about 57,000 learners left school before completing Grade 12 (Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, 2023b).
What do ordinary Namibians think about education in their country?
Findings from Afrobarometer’s latest survey show that education is a growing public concern: One in four citizens now cite education as an urgent priority requiring government intervention, up from one-sixth in 2021, placing it second behind unemployment.
Educational attainment is higher among younger Namibians than older generations. However, inequalities persist, with rural residents and the poorest citizens significantly less likely than urbanites and materially better-off respondents to progress with their education.
Accessibility remains a challenge: Fewer than half of surveyed communities have a public or private school within easy walking distance. And while few respondents say that families prioritise boys’ education over girls’, more than one-fourth report that schoolgirls often face discrimination and harassment at school. About half of respondents identify out-of-school children as a frequent problem in their community.
Among adults who had contact with a public school during the preceding year, most found it easy to obtain the services they needed. However, more than one in 10 had to pay a bribe to access school-related services.
Public evaluations of the government’s performance on education are largely negative. About two-thirds of citizens now rate the government’s handling of education poorly, with dissatisfaction having tripled since 2014.
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