29 Jan 2015

Orapa Junior Secondary School (JSS) has maintained the school’s reputation of academic excellence by outclassing other schools in the country in the recently released Junior Certificate (JC) results.

Although the school has been leading the pack for the past three years, the current results indicated that the school’s academic performance declined from 85 per cent in 2012 to the current 79.2 per cent.

Not far behind the school at the summit of the academic log are Mosewapula and Kgale Hill Junior Secondary Schools with 76.1 and 71.8 per cent respectively.

Orapa Junior school head, Mr Joshua Nkarabang attributed the school’s academic excellence to assistance they get from Debswana Diamond Mining Company.

“The mine helps us with special teachers in subjects like English; this is one of the reasons the school is doing well and also that we set ourselves high targets,” he said, adding that the school’s downward spiral of academic results was a matter of concern. 

“We are not happy that we are on the top spot yet we observe a saddening gradual decline in our pass rate,” he said, adding that 10 students got grade A; 69 B’s, 54 C’s, 31 Ds, and only four got E grade.

He said the foregoing grades were enough to place the school at the top, adding that his students excelled more in English and Agriculture, and that they will not rest until they get an upward spiral in future results. 

Meanwhile, a summary of the 2014 junior school examination overall results shows that only four regions had performed above 50 percent mark while the rest of the regions scored below. 

Central, South East, North East and Southern regions scored above 50 percent while Kgalagadi is trailing behind all the regions. 

The results further indicate that public schools have performed better than private schools. Government centres are the only ones which produced the two merits and have recorded the highest proportions in the grades A to D while private centres have recorded highest U grades. 

Chairman of Private Schools Association, Mr Steven Sorinyana attributed poor private school performance to lack of facilities, teaching aids and a conducive learning environment. 

“Many private schools are in serious need of teaching equipment and something needs to be done,” he said. ENDS