11 Jan 2016

The Member of Parliament for Bobonong, Mr Shaw Kgathi has declared a state of emergency following a spell of poor results by secondary schools in his constituency. 

Mr Kgathi announced this at a meeting with both primary and secondary school heads held at Madikwe Primary School recently.

He said results in the constituency left a lot to be desired and that parents were also complaining about poor performance. 

Mr Kgathi, who is also the Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, advised school heads not to render themselves obsolete, but to be game changers in the world of education which was becoming more complex and to come with strategies to turn the results around. 

He said primary school results in Bobirwa were impressive both in terms of quality and numbers that enrolled while secondary schools continued to record disappointing results. 

Since 2009, he said secondary schools had been performing satisfactorily until 2011, but that from 2012 to date no secondary school had performed above 50 per cent, including Matshekge Senior Secondary School.

He challenged school heads in Bobirwa to supervise teachers to ensure that they produced good results. 

Furthermore, he said primary school teachers had also participated in the 2011 industrial strike just like their counterparts at secondary schools, but were producing quality results. He warned secondary school teachers not to experiment with the lives of children.  He also told the meeting about concerns by constituents regarding poor school results forcing parents to transfer their children after passing PSLE to areas like Selebi-Phikwe where secondary schools were performing better than in Bobirwa. 

On Matshekge, Mr Kgathi said the school had never come close to their target of 50 per cent. He said in 2009 and 2010 it recorded 29.7 and 30.9 per cent respectively. 

In 2011, the school recorded 27.43 per cent and 24.62 per cent in 2012 which was followed by yet another bad spell of 25.06 per cent in 2013 and 19.3 per cent in 2014. 

Mr Kgathi said although parents also had a major role to play in their children’s education, he pleaded with school heads to ensure that they supervised teachers because the responsibility to explain and give responses regarding poor results lied with them. On other issues, he encouraged teachers to report cases of defilement to the police so that the culprits face the wrath of the law. 

On the other hand, the principal education officer, Mr Makgapeetsa Seshika explained that they had a challenge of supervision due to shortage of transport. 

Mr Seshika noted that the inspectoral area had 19 primary schools, seven junior secondary schools, one senior secondary school and a brigade, and that their efforts to monitor and conduct thorough supervision was hampered by lack of transport. 

He also noted that schools were faced with insufficient funds and votes to pay temporary teachers as well as other temporary ancillary staff because funds had dried up. 

He added that the student teacher ratio of one teacher to 50 students in some schools was also a challenge, adding that was not conducive for learning. 

Meanwhile, Matshekge senior school head, Mr Baboloki Bajiti admitted that results had not been satisfactory at the institution and blamed some parents for selling drugs such as dagga to students. 

Despite poor academic results, Mr Bajiti said the school was performing well in sporting activities. Ends