23 Apr 2015

Betesankwe Primary School in the outskirts of Jwaneng has defied all odds by making a positive turn around in performance.

The school obtained a 90 per cent pass in last year’s Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) as compared to 54 per cent in the previous year.

These impressive results put them in position three in the southern region, with Rachele in Kanye and Jwana in Jwaneng coming first and second respectively. The school headteacher, Mr Oarabile Sengalo said, the great improvement could be attributed to several factors as well as the input from several stakeholders.

He noted that they were working hard towards building a strong relationship between the school and the villagers so that parents could also play a role in the education of their children.

Mr Sengalo said even though they had few cases of uncooperative parents, the situation had improved hence boasting a good working relationship with parents as well as a strong Parents Teachers Association (PTA).

He also said teamwork and dedication by teachers and other staff members had managed to help the school regain its position as one of the best performing schools. He added that even though they were short of one teacher, he had taken up one of the classes to close that gap.

The school head commended the regional education office for the support it continued to give to the school to produce better results. Mr Sengalo further applauded Debswana for its Government Schools Development Programme, which he said was helping in subjects such as English, Mathematics and Science. 

The programme, he noted, continued to enhance teaching and learning at his school and ultimately improve the pupils’ results.

The clustering of Betesankwe, Lefoko, Tsonyane and Seherelela primary schools, which they nicknamed BELTS, has also immensely contributed towards a healthy competition amongst students and encouraged them to aim higher. 

He also noted that the cluster members set monthly tests for each other that help to gauge their teaching methods and benchmark on each other.

“The journey to success is not all rosy and smooth sailing,” said Mr Sengalo adding that the high number of absconding pupils continued to pose a threat to the school results.

“You find that sometimes at the beginning of the year, we have about 150 students as total enrolment but at the end of the year we are remaining with 130, due to some parents who work in farms and leave children on their own while some students prefer to stay with their parents.

However, through the assistance of the council, we traced them in an effort to bring them back, but unfortunately we have cases of repeated absconding,” he said. ENDS