26 May 2013

Truancy and suicidal thoughts remained a challenge for students at Chobe Junior Secondary School.

Addressing the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education and Skills Development on May 23, the school head, Mr Clayton Duiker attributed this to poverty and lack of parental care and support. 

"Already we have had about four cases of suicidal thoughts and truancy since the beginning of the year," he said.

Mr Duiker explained that there was a high number of students who are from poor backgrounds but were not registered.

 "Forty two are exempted from paying school fees but are not provided with other necessities," he added.

Another challenging issue in the region, he said, was that students with special needs at Kachikau have been neglected since the move by their rehabilitation officers to central government.  

"The students are no longer being given therapy, even their dietary needs are not being taken heed of," education officer, Ms Faith Tshekiso informed the committee.

Mr Duiker also outlined other challenges such as lack of supplies storeroom, compromised security for the students as bathrooms are housed outside hostels and lack of ironing rooms which means students sneak out of hostels to do their ironing. 

 "Additionally there were no work stations or cubicles for teachers resulting in them using their laps for writing on and marking students work," Mr Duiker informed the committee. 

Committee chairperson, Mr Bagalatia Arone, also MP for Okavango, felt that a lot of issues that were challenging the education ministry were because of administrative confusion that could be rectified. 

 "It's simple, the Kachikau students with special needs are obviously misplaced in central government so the solution is to take them back to where it was easier to assist them, it is just a question of aligning policies," he stressed.

He encouraged schools to coordinate procurement of books for students as a region and not individually as separate schools. Mr Arone said that government must do something about book suppliers who default thus delaying learning.

"Learners must find the school ready not to have to wait for books to arrive," he noted. 

 However, he noted with satisfaction how Chobe junior school had improved after it almost closed shop some years back. 

"The school is now habitable, back then it was dilapidated," he noted.

Concerning calls to turn Chobe Junior Secondary School in to a unified senior school, the regional education director, Mr Sonny Mooketsi confirmed that this was already being looked into.

The Parliamentary portfolio committee on education and skills development committee was on a tour around the country to check on education quality standards in terms of staffing situation, availability of resources and facilities and performance of students. ENDS