22 Dec 2016

When he entered the gates of Dutlwe Primary School way back mid-2011, Mr Tebogo Bogosi encountered a leviathan of a challenge.

It was in the middle of the biggest ever industrial strike in the history of the country, and most teachers had abandoned the chalkboard for the “trees” while those in class were on 'go slow'.

As a newly promoted head teacher from Hukuntsi in Kgalagadi, the greenhorn had the challenge of impressing upon his superiors through performance that he deserved the new rise in position.

“It was a tough task at my hands,” admitted the ever smiling leader when he recalls the day.

When the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results for that year were released, the magnitude of the challenge was apparent; the percentage pass from the school in the small village about 120km from Letlhakeng was a paltry 28.6 per cent, enough to cause any school head a migraines.

The following year the hangover of the strike was still hovering around and the school registered another paltry performance, a 33 per cent pass.

However, the fortunes of the small school changed drastically in 2013 when the results sprang to 76.9 per cent and from henceforth it has been an annual rise as in 2014 they improved further to 78.9 pe rcent, then 90.6 per cent last year.

By then the school came position one in the whole of the Letlhakeng Sub District, dethroning the nearby Tshwaane Primary School.

However, the big news for Dutlwe Primary came during this year’s PSLE when it registered a 100 per cent pass, beating all the 91 schools in Kweneng, a first in the history of the school.

Out of an enrolment of 24 students, half of them got grade A, five got Grade B and seven got Grade C.

This gave the school top position in quality pass and they were also the only school in the whole of Kweneng to register a 100 per cent pass this year.

“This is the first time since the establishment of the school that it registered a 100 per cent pass.

It has been our target all along and even though it would look too steep for some, we were confident that we can achieve it and we managed.

We are planning a mammoth victory party sometime next year and we are thinking of inviting the most senior government officials.

We are still planning with the PTA and even the Head of State himself is an option,” he said, rightly smiling from ear to ear.

However, the good performance of Dutlwe Primary School is not by chance, but rather a result of hardwork and the involvement of all the stakeholders.

“One vital secret of good performance is in the form of a tripod; parents, teachers and the kids themselves and for good results to be achieved all these three stakeholders have to know and play their role.

If one leg pulls off the tripod becomes unstable,” he said.

Mr Bogosi said after the dismal performance in his first two years at reign, they managed to work hard to rope the village leadership in order to help the parents realise their role in the education of their kids.

He said luckily parents opened up and welcomed them and that ever since they have been involved in the affairs of the school, including in the termly results analysis.

Mr Bogosi also indicated that one o their secrets at Dutlwe Primary School is that they do not just focus on standard seven performance, but that a hawk eye in kept even in lower grades.

He said this helps them monitor the performance and consistency of a group as it moves yearly up until standard seven.

“Results monitoring in all standards helps us to track a group from lower standards as it graduates, and this enables us to correct and nurture them before they reach the vital stage of standard seven because trying to focus on them only at standard seven maybe too late.

Our strategy is like nipping the challenge at the bud,” he stresses.

Mr Bogosi also said that ever since they started monitoring results of pupils at an early stage, they have realised that some of the underperform is as a results of their living conditions at home, especially during the ploughing season when the kids are left alone when parents have gone to the fields.

He said this created a void as no one assists them with home works. He said the other factor was intense supervision by the school management.

He said they do an analysis of results subject by subject to see how they can assist where some subjects are not doing well, and that doing such also helps keep teachers on their toes all the time.

For a school from a small village that does not have much exposure to the outside World, Mr Bogosi said practical and first-hand information was vital, hence the importance of educational tours.

He cited an example of their relationship with one local farmer who has a variety of agricultural machinery to whom they often take students so that they can see demonstrations of how such machines work.

He said this has helped improve their results in Agriculture. ENDS