Vinyl

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What you have is vinyl coated drywall with battens that are also vinyl coated. This will not be easy to paint, but it is possible.
If you remove the battens, you will find uneven gaps. If you tape and fill, there will be no texture where you filled, but there is a fine texture on the vinyl panels. So to make the walls look smooth, you are going to have to skim coat with compound. I do a fair amount of drywall work, but I try to avoid skim coating! It is not easy.
To paint, you should use something like Zinsser's Cover Stain (oil) primer. Wipe down with liquid deglosser just before priming. Then you can paint with latex flat paint. That will improve things a lot, even with the battens still there.
For more on painting and drywall, read those topics on my website at www.bobf.info.