{"id":99795,"date":"2026-02-22T10:01:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T10:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-steenkamps-phd-and-balancing-national-duty"},"modified":"2026-02-22T10:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T10:20:10","slug":"minister-steenkamps-phd-and-balancing-national-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-steenkamps-phd-and-balancing-national-duty","title":{"rendered":"Minister Steenkamp\u2019s PhD and Balancing National Duty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Namibia. <\/strong><\/span><b>Education minister Sanet Steenkamp says she had to put her doctoral studies on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic due to the pressure of leading the country\u2019s education response at the time.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>She revealed this during a public lecture hosted by the University of Namibia (Unam) and the Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) in Windhoek on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy national duty comes first,\u201d Steenkamp said she told her supervisors during a meeting in April 2020, when she was the executive director of education, arts and culture.<\/p>\n<p>She said the emotional weight of managing schools during the crisis was overwhelming at times, with long nights and difficult decisions that affected pupils, teachers and families nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>The now minister of education, innovation, youth, sport, arts and culture said strength did not mean being unbreakable. \u201cI am quite vulnerable, and I admit my vulnerability,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Steenkamp mentioned moments when she and her team sat together and cried after late-night meetings, only to return the next day to continue with their work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTomorrow, you start again,\u201d she said. Despite the setback, the minister said she managed to return to her studies with renewed focus.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, she took a month\u2019s leave to work only on her doctorate and travelled to South Africa to write and reflect. She obtained her doctorate in education from Rhodes University in South Africa in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Steenkamp reminded the audience that academic excellence is not achieved in isolation. \u201cIt comes from discipline and consistency,\u201d she said, while acknowledging that both are difficult to maintain.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Namibia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Namibia. Education minister Sanet Steenkamp says she had to put her doctoral studies on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic due to the pressure of leading the country\u2019s education response at the time. She revealed this during a public lecture hosted by the University of Namibia (Unam) and the Namibia University of Science and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":99793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-99795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-culture-and-art","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Minister Steenkamp\u2019s PhD and Balancing National Duty - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Education minister Sanet Steenkamp says she had to put her doctoral studies on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic due ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-steenkamps-phd-and-balancing-national-duty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minister Steenkamp\u2019s PhD and Balancing National Duty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Education minister Sanet Steenkamp says she had to put her doctoral studies on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic due ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-steenkamps-phd-and-balancing-national-duty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-22T10:01:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-22T10:20:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2026\/02\/sm_1771742962.390447.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"743\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-steenkamps-phd-and-balancing-national-duty#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-steenkamps-phd-and-balancing-national-duty\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Minister Steenkamp\u2019s PhD and Balancing National Duty\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-22T10:01:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-22T10:20:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-steenkamps-phd-and-balancing-national-duty\"},\"wordCount\":274,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-steenkamps-phd-and-balancing-national-duty#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2026\/02\/sm_1771742962.390447.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"culture and art\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-steenkamps-phd-and-balancing-national-duty#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-steenkamps-phd-and-balancing-national-duty\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-steenkamps-phd-and-balancing-national-duty\",\"name\":\"Minister Steenkamp\u2019s PhD and Balancing National Duty - 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