21 May 2015

Stakeholders have been encouraged to contribute to the well-being of students in order to help with the declining academic results.

Speaking at the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) North East Region Excellence Awards for Francistown Cluster on Tuesday, the Multichoice Botswana Customer Service Officer in Francistown Ms Thato Radira stated that the declining of academic results is a call for all stakeholders to play a role in the education system.

She said the contribution to a child’s education can be made by a parent or a taxi driver taking the child to school in the morning, a gate keeper at school, a cook at the kitchen, a grandparent at the lands or cattle post and various other officers in or out of the world of work.

Ms Radira mentioned that gone are the days when the task of teaching children was the sole preserve of teachers. She said the current trend was that teaching has been pluralized such that all of them have a part to play in educating the child.

Ms Radira further said Botswana has made considerable investments in education, leading to a very high enrollment at primary level, more secondary school students and significantly higher enrollment at tertiary level.

She highlighted that there are other issues, which are problematic in schools nowadays, but urged all to think about the discipline of students, which is going down, drug abuse, burning of hostels, teenage pregnancy and the scourge of HIV and AIDS.

Ms Radira urged the parents to work hard to ensure that their children do not fall prey to these ills. She added that they should lead by example and train their children in their social values such as greeting elders when they meet them as well as embracing all tenets of their culture.

For her part, the Chief Regional Officer Ms Outlule Basimolodi said despite the challenges faced by the education sector, the North East Region as a whole has exhibited excellence and quality by scoring first position amongst the entire ten regions at Primary School Leaving Examination, (PSLE) Junior Certificate of Education (JCE) and Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) levels in 2014.

She noted that academic results were a considerable improvement and it was also a testimony to the community, parents and students.

Ms Basimolodi said in the region, they have a culture, which they baptize the students in the name of excellence and hard work, adding that it is very important to record the best performance in the region. Ends