08 Mar 2015

Okavango Sub-district Council chairperson, Mr Mbahahauka Kambimba has urged councillors to mitigate the problem of poor results in the area. 

Delivering his speech during a sub-district council meeting in Gumare last week, the sub-council chairperson said politicians should play their role for the betterment of students education.

He said both Gumare and Shakawe sub-regions enrolled 1 601 pupils for the 2014 Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) and out of the number, 762 students were under the Gumare sub-region while 839 were from Shakawe.

Cllr Kambimba said the PSLE results analysis revealed that the Gumare sub-region scored 51.7 per cent pass ranging from A to B, while Shakawe sub-region scored 41.5 per cent pass ranging from A to B. He added that the overall pass mark for the entire sub district was 48.4 per cent.

He said the two sub-regions compared with other schools in Ngamiland show that Gumare stands at 26.6 percent and Shakawe at 21.8 per cent, meaning that, out of the 31 primary schools in the sub-district, 16 schools performed below 50 per cent.

With regards to Junior Certificate (JC) examinations, he said Okavango schools performed at 17.8 per cent and that only 245 out of 1 377 students obtained grades A to C while 1 132 obtained grade D to U which represents 82.2 per cent of the overall student population that set for the examination.

“The results do not paint a good picture of performance and we need to do something as the political leadership, parents, stakeholders in education and the general public, as government cannot manage alone,” he said. 

He encouraged good working relationships among all stakeholders, saying the Okavango Sub-district has been praised for doing well and that they should keep the momentum.

Furthermore, he asked the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) to come up with initiatives of addressing the problem in the area.

Cllr Kambimba also informed the house that stationery for the 2015 calendar year had been successfully distributed to schools in time.

He said the sub-council was doing well with regards to distribution of school feeding commodities despite challenges such as the vastness of the sub-district. 

He added that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development had disbursed over P2 million to cater for food at schools.

Furthermore, he briefed the house that there were 1 843 destitute persons receiving monthly rations, 1 730 needy students at various primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.

He said at least 46 home based care clients, 141 people living with disability and 2 321 Rural Area Dwellers (RADs), enjoyed services rendered to them. ENDS