Youth Marginalization in Southern Africa - Center for Global Education and Experience

This is an event for all Augsburg University faculty, staff, and students, with CGEE’s Global Faculty member from Namibia, Pinias Kashedi.

The Augsburg community is invited to join CGEE in welcoming Pinias Kashedi, Global Faculty from Namibia, on campus! He will be hosting a talk about the marginalization of youth in Southern Africa, titled, “Education Capture and Youth Marginalization in Namibia.” A brief description is below:

Using an historic perspective on Namibia, the speaker will discuss the development of education from colonialism and through apartheid. The unemployment rate in Namibia is one of highest within Africa, at 41%. Economic opportunities for young people are less compared to employed adults. There is also a very low youth representation in leadership and decision making structures. Most Namibian youth believe that political activism does not yield results. There are close to 90,000 unemployed graduates, some with graduate education qualifications, in a country with a total population around 2.5 million. Colonial and social injustice are a factor to these issues, but also an inherited education system which perpetuates economic and social marginalization of young people. What, if anything, is the Namibian government doing to address the issues? Mr. Kashedi will discuss all of this and much more at this invigorating global lecture!

We will conclude the talk with a meet and greet with our colleague Pinias for you to get to know him better and welcome him to the Augsburg University community.

When: Wednesday, September 20th
Time: 3:40 p.m.
Where: OGC 100

ALL are welcome to attend! Please RSVP here.

Pinias Kashedi is the Study Abroad Program Coordinator and Global Faculty in Namibia. Pinias is the instructor for the course “Political and Social Change in Southern Africa.” He holds a Master’s of Philosophy in Education and Training for Lifelong Learning from Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He further holds a Post-graduate Diploma in Business Administration and a Bachelors of Education from the University of Namibia.

Pinias worked for the Namibian Government as a Voter Education as well as leading Adult and Continuing Education programs at district level. Prior to joining the Augsburg CGEE team in Namibia in the fall of 2021, he worked for the US Embassy as the Cultural Affairs assistant and EducationUSA adviser managing and coordinating youth and professional exchange programs and educational advising for international students planning to study in the US. He worked to increase the number of Namibians studying in the US by 80% in the last 5 years of his tenure. He also continues to teach Development Studies and Adult Learning at the Namibia College of Open Learning (NAMCOL) on a part-time basis.