The Ministry of Education, Innovation, Youth, Arts, and Culture is hosting a career fair in the northeastern regions aimed at bringing information to learners in the rural areas.

For the past two weeks, the delegation has visited the Kavango East and Kavango West regions and is now in the Zambezi Region.

The team consists of tertiary institutions such as NUST, UNAM, NAMCOL, IUM, WELWITSCHIA, NQA, and NSFAF, as well as vocational training centres and the National Youth Service.

The career fair education coordinator, Annastasia Sinalumbu, said they have engaged with over 14 schools so far in the Zambezi Region, providing career guidance to learners from grades 8 to 12.

Sinalumbu added that during their presentations, learners' career choices seemed to be limited to nursing, teaching and law enforcement.

She added that learners were positive and seemingly eager to receive the information. The ministry will move to other regions in its next phase, aiming for 100% coverage, even though it is currently focused on the northeast.

NSFAF's Deputy Director of Student Support, Chris Mwiya, clarified a current misconception regarding the eligibility criteria for student financial aid, which many learners had misunderstood.

"We have noticed that most of the students who have registered at the universities are not opting for the non-tuition fee because they were told it's free tertiary education; they just register, but they are not applying. So if they do not apply, if we close off, the university will bill them directly because we will not pay; we will not know them. That's why we emphasise and request that they at least apply for the tuition fee."

Despite finding the engagement insightful, learners also criticised some institutions' scale.