Frustration and resentment at the extension of apartheid education to Namibia erupted during the closing months of 1976 into a striking display of solidarity with South African students. From the beginning of November, black students at schools throughout Namibia boycotted examinations being held under the terms of the Bantu Education Act and therefore not recognised abroad. Political leaflets have been circulated attacking Bantu education as the "instrument of the homelands policy". At one school in Damaraland, police were reported to have baton-charged a protest gathering of children carrying placards showing their solidarity with the victims of the Soweto demonstrations and objecting to the Bantu education system. Troops from the nearby Otjiwarango military training camp were also called in in five armoured cars. One girl was reported to have been admitted to hospital with injuries incurred during police attacks.
On 15 November, petrol fires erupted in four places in the Augustineum Training College, Windhoek, causing damage to a classroom, the headmaster's office, the hall and a storeroom. A number of students were subsequently arrested and taken in by the police for questioning, leading to further protests and boycotts of classes by their colleagues. According to a press statement issued at the beginning of December by the Voice of the People, a black political organization, six students — Johannes Boois, Dawid Mazian, Samuel Mukunda, Johannes Mukunda, Isak Frederick and Bertus Petrus — were then being held in Katutura goal. Eddie Goraseb had also been removed from classes by the police.
Exams and classes are also reported to have been boycotted at the Martin Luther School in Omaruru, the Tses High School in Bersbas, St. Therese High School, David Goraseb High School, Petrus Kaneb Secondary School, and the Okakarara High School in the far north-east of the country. According to the Namibia Black Students Organisation (NABSO), 70% of the students at Okakarara demonstrated and marched with placards to show their rejection of Bantu education, and both here and at Kharixas in Damaraland were maltreated by South African armed forces and officials. In a statement calling for the immediate release of detained students, NABSO pointed out that the Okakarara students had been told by representatives from the Turnhalle that they must wait for solutions forthcoming from the Turnhalle constitutional talks. Yet all such decisions were being blocked by the bantustan policies of the whites. Bantu education, the NABSO statement continued, "is the foundation of racism and group identity; it is there to prepare Black students for a third-class citizenship. It is a propaganda machinery of apartheid dehumanization and discrimination."
Although there has been little in the press, it appears that classes are continuing to be boycotted at a number of schools. It is not known how many students have been detained but a group from the Martin Luther High School are due to appear in court in February.
Meanwhile, approximately 237 Nama teachers have been sacked from their jobs by the Department of Coloured, Rehoboth and Nama Affairs, for disobeying a departmental order to return to work. On 9 November, teachers throughout Namaland went on strike in a demand for better pay in line with the salaries paid to Coloured teachers (with whom they are grouped under South Africa's racial classification scheme), and the building of more high schools for Namas, particularly one in an urban area. On 9 December, all those still absent from work were informed that because of "misconduct" their services as teachers were no longer required. Despite requests from the South West Africa Nama Teachers Association (SWANOV), Mr. Hennie Smit, Minister of Coloured, Rehoboth and Nama Affairs, had refused to meet the striking teachers to discuss their grievances.
