25 Aug 2015

Bobirwa Sub district council chairperson has expressed concern that schools in the area were hard hit by high number of dropouts at both primary and secondary schools.

Mr Nathaniel Moribame said this during the sub council meeting recently that 37 students had dropped out at junior secondary schools, of which 22 were females while 15 were males.

 “Mmadinare senior secondary school recorded 20 dropouts with 14 being females and six being males,” he said. Mr Moribame also councillor for Molalatau, further told councillors that at Matshekge senior school, 30 students dropped out of the institution of which 28 were females and two were males.

“Twenty seven of these dropouts at both Mmadinare and Matshekge schools were due to pregnancy,” he said. At primary schools, he said seven students had dropped out.

He said of the seven, five were boys dropping out of the schools due to different reasons, whilst two girls dropped out due to pregnancy. He was concerned that pregnancy among school going children remained a challenge in the sub district and called on councilors to address the issue.

Despite the challenge of dropouts, he said most primary schools performed well, although there was a need for improvement. Mr Moribame said there was improvement in the inspectoral areas of Bobirwa and Mmadinare because results indicated value addition.

He commended Lepokole primary school improvement in the Primary School Leaving Examinations where they recorded 61.6 per cent from 48 per cent recorded in 2014.

The sub council chairperson was however concerned that performance was unsatisfactory in secondary schools, especially in completing classes with all junior schools performing between 9 and 32.9 percent.

The two senior secondary schools being Matshekge and Mmadinare recorded unpleasing performance of 19.3 and 6.4 per cent respectively.

Concerning water situation in the sub district, he said the electrification of a borehole and a booster station at P3 million was expected to be complete soon, and would remedy water supply in the village.

He mentioned that Lepokole project was successfully completed and the plant was fully operational and supplying class one water, adding that council has since stopped bowsing to the area. The project was under the defects liability area, he stated.

As for the emergency water project at Bobonong, Molalatau, Mathathane and Tsetsebye, he said it was completed in 2014, but was awaiting the critical component of borehole electrification.

Further to address acute water shortage at Damochujenaa and other villages within Serule cluster, he stated that Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) initiated a project namely ‘Connection of Selebi Phikwe to Serule water transfer scheme’ to ensure sufficient supply of quantity portable water for the villages of Mmadinare, Serule, Moreomabele,

Topisi, Gojwane and Damochujenaa as a long term supply solution for the next 20 years up to 2034. He said the design for the interconnection was completed in July last year, with the tender presented to WUC tender committee for consideration. Ends