03 Jul 2014

Shakawe Senior Secondary School students, who failed form five examinations last year, will have the opportunity to repeat form four in September in five senior secondary schools.

The Acting Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi, said during a kgotla meeting in Shakawe on Monday that before they return to secondary school in September, all the students should register with the Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning (BOCODOL) where the education ministry made arrangements for the learning process to continue.

The five senior secondary schools are Madiba in Mahalapye, Ghanzi, Good Hope, Shakawe and Maun senior secondary schools.

Mr Masisi said the education ministry valued the future of these students, and realised that enrolling them with BOCODOL alone was not enough as they needed to be monitored because of the challenges they had before their school was completed.

He explained that government would bear all expenses to make sure that all the students were taken to the five senior secondary schools in September. 

At present, 325 students have registered with BOCODOL. 

He pleaded with the remaining 260 to do so to keep up with school work before September.

He apologised on behalf of the government about the delays. 

He encouraged out-of-school youth to school to use facilities such as BOCODOL to develop themselves educationally. 

He told the Okavango residents that thegovernment cared about of them and that they should not think that they were always disadvantaged.

He said poverty eradication schemes and returning the students back to school showed that the government was fighting daily for their welfare.

Mr Masisi pleaded with the students to take care of themselves, given that 16 of them dropped out of Shakawe Senior Secondary School between January and June this year because of pregnancy.  ENDS