18 Mar 2013

Education and Skills Development Minister, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi is optimistic that the road map she has laid towards improvement of education in the country will bear positive results in two to three years’ time.

Addressing St Joseph’s College Parents and Teacher Association (PTA) meeting, Dr Venson-Moitoi said plans she has put in place will cumulatively improve performance in schools.

She added that she has also analysed government obligations towards education and made recommendations the nation will be content with.

Some recommendations, Dr Venson-Moitoi said included establishing the teaching council which she said would improve the value of teaching and also set standards of what was expected of them.

“This is also meant to protect the reputation of the teaching profession,” she added.

Other plans, she said, include making school heads accountable for their schools’ results, improving infrastructure in schools to enhance performance and addressing teacher accommodation problems and the introduction of an inspectorate unit.

She further told the meeting that she was aware of the risk she took in allowing admission of students who attained grade D to form four.

Nonetheless, she remained hopeful that teachers will be able to transform them, given that some might have had challenges at the time they sat for their examinations.

She also implored school authorities not to fear admitting problematic students, noting that she was positive that they will be able to convert ‘bad eggs to good apples.’

Dr Venson-Moitoi also expressed gratitude to the school’s performance in the BGCSE results and the cooperation that prevailed among the school and PTA.

St Joseph’s College PTA had called the minister to update her on issues of concern at the school.

Such issues included, among others, reception of problematic and less able students due to its proximity to the notorious junior secondary schools in Gaborone West and huge class sizes which they argued made it difficult for teachers to perform to their level best.

They also called for teacher-aids to assist in the remedial for underperforming students and to also address performance disparities, especially for those who were admitted with grade D.

The School head, Ms Constance Male pleaded with the ministry to be considerate to her school because it received a high number of students in every intake with an inadequate budget.

She further asked the minister to intervene on the issue of Kgale hiking stop, where she said there had been many accidents because of large volume of vehicles, especially in the morning, hence the need to erect traffic lights or dispatch police corps to control traffic.

The meeting also commended the ministry for discontinuing automatic progression to secondary school (form 1) saying that will improve performance. ENDS