Namibia

Slightly more than 25 percent of the school-going population is at the secondary level. In 1991 a new junior secondary curriculum was introduced throughout the country that unified the 11 separate educational authorities and introduced English as the common medium of instruction. About 20 percent of weekly class time is devoted to pre-vocational subjects. The syllabus thus prepares students either for higher education or the workforce. In grades 11 to 12 in senior secondary schools, pupils are prepared for the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) of the Cambridge Examinations Syndicate. Subjects examined for the IGCSE are agriculture, commerce, technology, domestic science and health education, natural sciences and mathematics, and humanities. Physical education, religious and moral education, and guidance are compulsory subjects in all schools, but they are not tested through the IGCSE.

In Namibia, literacy is defined as referring to those who, age 15 or older, can read and write. According to this definition, 38 percent of the total population is literate: 45 percent of males and 31 percent of females.

As in many African countries, HIV/AIDS affects the lives of countless numbers of children and therefore also education practices. Namibia has one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world. Since 1999, between 20 and 26 percent of all people between the ages of 15 and 49 live with the disease. The spread of this disease is bound to continue to affect education as children are often left in dire poverty, either as orphans or with a single parent.