Tuition fees still a barrier

Nanso has reiterated that education, and access thereto, is the most basic pillar of building a progressive society.
Tunohole Mungoba
Michelline Nawatises



The Namibia National Students Organisation (Nanso) is apolitical and under its current national executive committee it shall remain as such, because it receives its mandate from students and learners, with its only highest guiding Bible the constitution.

Nanso president Ester Simon said: “We call on our Nanso members never to be used; own yourself and your thoughts because at the end of the day, you are only left with your conscious.”

She stressed that the young people must be taught the principles of loyalty, discipline, hard work and commitment to achieve anything.

Access to higher education campaign

Nanso’s access to higher education campaign is prompted by the noted difficulties that students, especially new entrants, have faced in previous years during the registration period.

These difficulties include, but are not limited to, long and tiring registration queues, the inability to pay registration fees, as well as confusion among registering students.

This has been demonstrated in various ways in the past, with examples such as the “University Lockdown”, which called for the abolishment of registration fees at universities of higher learning in pursuit of resolution 16.

This year, Nanso’s “The Access Campaign” will assist students during the registration period at institutions of higher learning.

All these and many more challenges are registered as factors that threaten the access of the Namibian child to tertiary education.

The campaign will also be an opportunity to call for the abolishment of registration and application fees, and ensure that every eligible student has access to education and funding.

Nanso will engage the SRCs at all institutions, in order to establish the way forward for the campaign and will work with them and release practical steps for each institution, led by the Nanso branches stationed at the respective institutions.

The way forward

Nanso is premised on reuniting, rebuilding and realigning the student movement, and the leadership is informed by the three principle pillars of policy development and implementation, campus and community work and international relations and cooperation.

This year will be geared towards ensuring that government declares free tertiary education.

The organisation will ensure that free tertiary education announcement is made before June 2019. Furthermore, 2019 will be a festival of more organisational building, education policy proposals, community campaigns and campus-related work.

Nanso believes that these efforts are the best strategy to better advance and represent student issues and interests. The best way to provide this leadership is for all structures, branches and regional executive committees to also use the time the organisation has been entrusted with to the best of its abilities, in order to serve the youth student movement selflessly, honestly and above all with humility.

Nanso will continue to monitor the state of education in Namibia and continue to be engage both education ministries with the purpose of sharing policy proposals and perspectives on the transformation of higher education, which will ensure a responsive, effective and efficient, functional and world-class education system.