22 Mar 2015

Orapa Junior Secondary school (JSS) has been the top performing public school in Junior Certificate examinations for the past five years due to a strong foundation of pre and primary school education and strong parent support.

The Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Moiseraela Goya said the school has also been aided by the support of Debswana, which has deployed three specialist teachers to strengthen teaching and learning in the subject areas of English, Mathematics and Science.

He said there was also an effective school leadership, saying the school works as a team sharing and owning the vision of taking Orapa JSS to the highest level performance. Answering a questing in Parliament , Mr Goya said Orapa JSS is a 15 stream school with an enrolment of 606 students, 52 teachers and a teacher student ratio of 1:40.

He further said Ditsweletse JSS is an 18 stream school with an enrolment of 780 students, 60 teachers and a teacher student ratio of 1:43, while Motsumi is also an 18 stream school with an enrolment of 807 students, 63 teachers and a teacher student ratio of 1:45.

He said shortage of teaching space remains a challenge and his ministry was in the process of procuring prefabricated classrooms to mitigate the situation.

The Member of Parliament for Boteti East, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe had asked the minister why Orapa JSS had been the top performing school in Junior Certificate Examinations for the past five years while its counterparts in Letlhakane perform badly.

MP Lelatisitswe had also asked the minister to compare Orapa, Motsumi, and Ditsweletse secondary schools in terms of student capacity, office space and teacher student ration per class, teachers as well as number of classes taught under trees and therefore wanted to know what plans were in place to normalise the situation. ENDS