26 Aug 2015

Public schools in the villages of Werda and Kokotsha are hit the most by incidents of school drop outs  when compared to other 20 villages in the Kgalagadi South constituency.  

Statistics presented before the outgoing Tsabong Sub District Child Protection Committee members by principal education officer in the Tsabong Regional Education Office, Ms Mavis Moyo has revealed that students who come in and go out of school are classified as “potential drop outs”.

She said Tapologo Junior School, Werda’s sole junior school, has a high number of potential school drop outs. Currently there are eight cases of learners who dodge studies; the ratio is equal in terms of sex, thus  four girls and four boys. At Kokotsha Primary School, three students have left school for good this year.

Furthermore, three incidents of a similar nature have been recorded in Tsabong Junior School where one of the three students lives with disability. She stated that the saddening part concerning the student is that she is pregnant and her caretaker does not know the identity and whereabouts of the person who impregnated her.

Meanwhile, the regional education officer also bemoaned the situation of school drop outs at Kgolagano Junior Secondary School.

“We have registered 13 cases of school drop outs at Kgolagano and the numbers indicate that they were 10 boys and three girls.” Ms Moyo said the causes of school drop outs in both Kokotsha and Werda are similar.

“Children in Kokotsha and Werda leave school to work in the farms with minimal interventions by parents and most of them say the farms are the only places where they can get appetizing meals. They said schools provide mundane and tasteless food. “

Ms Moyo said parents in the Werda and Kokotsha areas neglect their children and this has become a habit. The affected children are allowed to roam from one farm after the other and parents can go for days without knowing their children’s whereabouts.

The educator said the regional office has devised numerous counter interventions to mitigate the crisis. She said one such intervention is when they conducted a workshop in Werda that was meant to address the situation. 

She said 15 learners attended the workshop and at the end of the workshop only 10 learners returned to school whereas five opted to stay home. Ms Moyo stated that the parents of the affected children were absent which indicated that parents do not contribute to safeguard the future of their children.

When commenting, Ms Nametsang Peloyame, the social welfare officer at the Tsabong Sub district Council said she has firsthand experience of children who drop out of school in both Werda and Kokotsha. 

She said the situation is a painful reality that requires immediate attention. The welfare officer said children in the two villages indulge in tobacco smoking from early childhood. She said smoking affects their learning to the extent that most of them cannot write their own names. 

She challenged the district leadership to lobby for rehabilitation centeres which can be used to restore the dignity of the damaged children. However, Ms Peloyame urged stakeholders more especially educators to exercise patience when dealing with troubled children so as to bring them back to normal.

For his part, the councillor for Kokotsha, Mr Meleko Thumpe said the government should punish parents who neglect their children so as to send a strong message to the whole community. He also appealed that a mini survey or research be carried out to assess the magnitude of the problem in Kgalagadi. Ends