02 Sep 2015

Ghanzi Senior Secondary School is set to celebrate its 20^th anniversary this month.

The celebrations will be combined with the school’s prize giving ceremony to reward students who performed well academically and in their respective clubs in the school. The school’s working personnel will also be rewarded.

Former students, community members as well as former teachers are expected to grace the event.

The school was, however, officially opened 10 years ago, by the then area Member of Parliament, Mr Johnnie Swartz. Mr Batshidi Tsae, the school’s headteacher, is full of praise for the current crop of students and teachers at the school. 

He says the cooperation that exists between teachers and students can be envied by many.

“We have students who run the school through the students representative council that is well functioning and running students affairs, and all that is left for us as management is to facilitate. When dealing with teenagers, it is always best to engage them.The environment we have created works well and best for us,” he said.

Mr Tsae is proud of strides made by the school in the past few years because of the methods the school has adopted. 

He states for the past five years, the school has been the best in value addition having been number one in the five years. However, they lost the spot last year and dropped to number two in all the senior secondary schools in the country. 

He is also proud that the school has produced achievers, citing the duo of Mr Ketelelo Moapare and Ms Wame Chibamo.

Mr Moapare passed his General Certificate of Secondary Education in 2012 with 48 points while Ms Chibamo got 47 points in 2013.  He left Botswana to further his studies in the United States of America after excelling in his A Levels at Maru-a-Pula School.

Mr Tsae is also full of praise for different stakeholders that are supportive of the school’s objectives that seek to turn the school into an institution to reckon with. 

Mr Tsae also gave praise to his teachers. He commended his teachers for going the extra mile, and volunteering with extra-curricular activities when they do not have funds to pay them overtime. He also says the district management, including councillors are always willing to lend a hand. 

He says they have an agreement with councillors and the area’s two MPs Mr Noah Salakae and Mr Christian De Graaff to slot them in their kgotla meetings in order to address parents about issues concerning the school.

This, he says, was done as an initiative of taking the school to parents.  “Look, Ghanzi senior has 1 332 students and out of this number, 1 002 are boarders. A lot of them come from different settlements that feed the school as well as students from Maun, Shakawe and Jwaneng, and we ensure we also visit those places to engage their parents,” notes Mr Tsae.

The school has had a reputation of always being marred by protests since it opened its doors. The last incident was in 2006.

Nevertheless, he says all is not lost as measures have been put in place to address issues that arise. He revealed that they have engaged the services of a private security company to protect the lives of students as well as their belongings. 

Mr Tsae explained that they had experienced theft of student belongings at the dormitories. He further says they have reduced the number of deserting students from 53 in 2012 to just 30 currently, saying it is an achievement and progress they continue to harness. Ends