25 Apr 2016

 The Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development , Mr Moiseraele Goya said there was no correlation between a geographical location of a school and its academic performance.

Officiating at a prize giving ceremony at Dutlwe primary school in the Letlhakeng Sub -district on Thursday, Mr Goya hailed the primary school for being exemplary in dismissing that myth. 

He said that rather good teaching and learning were the ones that promoted attainment of good students and learning outcomes.

He said Dutlwe primary school had demonstrated that it was possible for all learners to succeed.

“The school has distinguished itself from the crowd and it has put the small village of Dutlwe on the map. Instead of settling for mediocrity, it has chosen the path of academic excellence. The school’s record of academic excellence in the last three years has exploded the myth that rural schools cannot outperform their counterparts in towns and cities,” he said.

Mr Goya also applauded the staff of the school together with parents and other civil servants in the village for working cooperatively for the good of the students.

He praised its good governance, teacher professionalism, students discipline and strong parent and community support as well as effective supervision at regional level for steering the school towards success.

“As you are all aware, a good number of our public schools are presently underachieving academically. This scenario is a cause for grave concern for government and the nation at large and efforts to change that situation for the better are continuing,” he said.

Mr Goya said among the corrective measure government was undertaking was raising the quality of classroom instruction and ensuring that there was a strong teacher in every classroom and strong principal in every school.

For his part, the school head, Mr Tebogo Bogosi attributed the school’s good academic performance to the fact that they did not only focus on standard seven pupils, but encouraged excellence even from standard ones.

He said their intention had been to do well mainly in quality pass (A and B grades) rather than quantity pass (A, B, C), and said they were happy that last year the whole school managed to produce 50 per cent quality pass. 

He also appreciated the Letlhakeng sub region for timely assistance in basic items such as delivery of books.

He also appreciated strong working relationship between the school staff and parents.

 He however, said despite the good performance, the school was not without needs as they had shortage of classrooms as well as teachers accommodation.

He also said there were still some students who did not attend school properly, mainly because of poor parental care, and said this also affected the school’s performance.

For his part, Kweneng regional director, Mr Benson Rauwe said the unique management of Dutlwe primary school which emphasised on total community involvement also helped instill seriousness in students.

He said this was because the teacher could only contribute about 60 per cent to a student’s education while the rest came from other stakeholders like parents. 

He also implored other schools in the region to benchmark on it.

Mr Rauwe also encouraged regional education managers to make regular visits to schools to identify their needs and challenges so that they could help them in time.

Dutlwe primary school attained 90.6 per cent pass in the last Primary School Leaving Examinations, an improvement from the previous 78.8 per cent. 

It received a donation of P500 from area councillor, Mr Tlotlo Batlhophi as well as P1 000 and a floating trophy from area MP, Mr Ngaka Ngaka.

The family representative, Ms Boingotlo Ngaka indicated that the trophy, which floats to the best school in the Takatokwane Constituency, is the family’s effort to help uplift the standard of education in the area.

She said this was also a way of meeting government halfway as citizens have been called to come upon and assist.ENDS