02 Oct 2014

The acting chief executive officer for Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA), Mr Abel Modungwa says Botswana needs to strengthen education at all levels in order to build a sustainable knowledge based economy.

Mr Modungwa said there was need to provide knowledge and appropriate skills across education sector and training levels.

Giving a keynote address during Iphutheng Junior Secondary School’s joint prize giving and 25th anniversary celebration recently, he said Botswana had made significant strides to achieve Vision 2016 pillar of an informed and educated nation.

Mr Modungwa said contribution towards the attainment of the vision rested on the extent of commitment and dedication of teachers, parents, leaners and all other key players.

He said teachers had a responsibility to build future leaders by transforming young ones into constructive thinkers, responsible and good citizens of this country.

He said initiatives such as prize giving ceremonies plays a vital role in promoting hard work between leaners and at the same time allowing the school to evaluate performance as a school, being considerate about how to support the leaners and how best to involve parents and guardians in the learning process.

However, he said teachers were faced with a mammoth task as they are held accountable on many circumstances by parents and the society at large concerning students’ academic performance.

He said many parents and the society depend on teachers to transform their young ones into constructive thinkers and responsible citizens and also expects them not only to provide education and trainning but also promote students social and emotional development.

Mr Modungwa bemoaned that parental involvement cannot be over emphasized saying parents should have interest in the performance.

“Leaving it in the hands of teachers is neglecting one’s responsibility of being a parent,” he said.

He said parents should have keen interest in children’s education so as to identify how best they can facilitate the learning process rather than blaming teachers when children underperform.

He pointed out that the situation needs a turnaround strategy, which evidently involves all the critical stakeholders, involving school heads and management teams, Village Development Committees, Dikgosi, Parents Teachers Association and political leaders.

Mr Modungwa said Iphutheng school annual pass rate over the years was satisfactory as compared to the current pass rate.

He said the roles and responsibilities of all should be clear and fulfilled whereby all the critical stakeholders should assess the school situation, identify strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities and device strategies that will mitigate weakness and threats and capitalize on the strengths and opportunities for better results.

He encouraged all stakeholders to set clear and achievable targets despite limited resources at their disposal.

Mr Modungwa encouraged the school management to benchmark with best performing schools to up their performance.

He said through all stakeholders’ correlation, they will be able to build future leaders and that high performing leaners will not struggle to secure spaces at institutions of higher learning and will remain competitive in the job market.

He also said this will reduce dependence on social welfare and substantially improve the economy of the country.

For her part, the school head, Ms Olebile Mokgweetsi said the school has 25 years of existence and in the past its performance was quite impressive.

Since 2012, she said the school performance rate has drastically dropped which calls for the school to go an extra mile.

Ms Mokgweetsi said their aim is to provide efficient, quality and relevant education but they were stalled by factors such as poor involvement of parents in their leaners education, shortage of infrastructure.

She further said they were using science laboratories as a classroom, and moreover girls were performing much better than boys.

She added that issues such as teenage pregnancy also affect them, whereby last year they recorded two cases of teenage pregnancy.

The school was presented with a printer, fax and scanner as a corporate sponsorship from Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA).

The prize giving and 25th anniversary were celebrated under the theme “25 years of unity and hard work, educating a nation, shaping futures touching lives”. Ends