25 Mar 2014

Parliament has deferred a motion requesting the Ministry of Education and Skills Development to make a special dispensation to allow students who enrolled at Shakawe Senior Secondary School a chance to repeat.

Tabling the motion before Parliament on Friday, March 21, Member of Parliament for Okavango, Mr Bagalatia Arone said out of the 650 students that sat for an examination, only 85 would be eligible for tertiary admission.

He said these students were supposed to have started senior secondary school in January 2012 at Shakawe school, but it never happened due to defects that surfaced at the school.

This was at a time when the school was supposed to be opened. Mr Arone argued that students lost a lot of time and the decision to admit them at Maun Senior Secondary school came late, adding that possibly there was no proper learning at the facility because the school was overwhelmed.

He said Shakawe senior was the first school in the country since Botswana came into being that had attained a pass rate of 7.4 per cent.

The Okavango legislator said the students should have been allowed to start afresh, and not to proceed from where they left at Maun secondary and that those form fours coming behind should have been admitted at Letlhakane, Maun and Ghanzi senior schools.

He said the education minister, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi gave assurances to the house, the nation and his constituents before that some strategies would be put in place to ensure that the students could catch up.

He said the minister even stated that she was aware of the time lost and that the ministry would put measures in place to ensure students remained behind during holidays to cover up.

The MP wondered what gave the minister hope that students would catch up and perform better.“We are talking about students who got As and Bs at junior secondary, but they have now failed,” he said.

For his part,  the Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Patrick Masimolole said he was equally concerned about poor results at Shakawe Senior Secondary School.

He asked Parliament that he be given until next Friday to look into the matter as he was not ready to give the response as he did not have all the relevant information.

He said he and Minister Venson-Moitoi had been away on official duties last week, hence could not attend to the motion on notice. Dr Venson-Moitoi also concurred that her ministry could not respond to the motion on short notice because there was not enough information.

She said the decision required a lot of thinking into it. Leader Of Opposition, Mr Dumelang Saleshando expressed disappointment saying the issue required urgency. He also noted that the ministry was long informed about the matter earlier in the month.

He said the fact that the minister acknowledged that the issue was weighty; she should have long looked for the facts. “This motion is brought on provision of urgency and now if they delay when they got the notice before business resumed, then there is a problem,” he said.

MP for Francistown South, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi said he was worried that curriculum design and implementation was timed hence students might be behind the syllabus; the longer the motion was delayed.

Deputy Speaker, Mr Pono Moatlhodi advised that following the decision to adjourn the motion, the mover of the original motion should name a later date for the resumption of the debate.  The mover of the motion, Mr Arone then agreed to move the motion to March 28. Ends