Free education to fall

Well-placed sources at the Central Committee meeting of the ruling Swapo Party were shocked to the core yesterday when President Hage Geingob announced "the end of free primary and secondary education in Namibia because of lack of money." Sources say Geingob announced that school boards will be re-introduced and parents will be expected to start paying school fees.
In a strange twist Geingob informed the meeting that "it was the late education minister Abraham Iyambo who made a mistake to introduce free education" saying he was against the idea.
Schools are set to close on Friday this week, a few days earlier, allegedly because of the cost of keeping children in hostel.
The meeting, attended also by the country's first education minister Nahas Angula, discussed the financial crunch the country finds itself in and there were also murmurings of merging ministries, such as the education and higher education ministries, in a bid to save money. The cost of the poverty eradication ministry was also allegedly questioned with some saying that handing out food is an unsustainable form of combating poverty.
Read the full story in Monday's edition.

STAFF REPORTER