2 600 nursing graduates fail national HPCNA assessment
More than 2 600 nursing and midwifery graduates have failed the national exam to practise in Namibia since last year, adding to widespread concerns about the quality of nursing training in the country. The figures, which the Health Professions Councils of Namibia (HPCNA) recently presented the parliament’s standing committee on education, cover evaluation sessions held […] The post 2 600 nursing graduates fail national HPCNA assessment appeared first on The Namibian .
More than 2 600 nursing and midwifery graduates have failed the national exam to practise in Namibia since last year, adding to widespread concerns about the quality of nursing training in the country.
The figures, which the Health Professions Councils of Namibia (HPCNA) recently presented the parliament’s standing committee on education, cover evaluation sessions held since the exam became compulsory for locally trained nurses and midwives in January 2025.
According to the statistics, 2 743 of the 5 427 graduates evaluated passed, while 2 683 failed, including candidates who were recorded as failures after not attending the examination.
The statistics show 1 523 nurse and midwife practitioner graduates were expected to be evaluated.
Of these, only 600 passed.
A further 60 candidates did not sit for the evaluation and were regarded as having failed, bringing the total number of failures to 923. This resulted in a 39% pass rate and a 61% failure rate.
Among 3 904 staff nurse graduates assessed during six evaluation sessions, 1 984 passed and 1 820 failed, resulting in a 51% pass rate and a 49% failure rate.
The parliamentary committee did not provide a breakdown of the candidates who were absent or explain the reasons for their failure classification beyond indicating that those who did not write the examinations were regarded as having failed.
