18 Jan 2017

Residents of Sebina have appealed to government to consider building a senor secondary school in their area.

Kgosi Shathani Mokoka of Sebina made the request in a kgotla meeting addressed by Member of Parliament for Shashe West, Mr Fidelis Molao  in Sebina on Monday.

Currently, students from Sebina who complete junior certificate are admitted at Nata Senior Secondary School.

Thus, Kgosi Mokoka said with Nata being quite a distance from Sebina, some parents fail to fulfill the parents/teachers partnership, hence it becomes a challenge.

Furthermore, Kgosi Mokoka noted that just towards the end of last term, parents were called to an emergency meeting by Nata school management following serious water shortage, which had the school authorities forced to allow students to relieve themselves outsides the facility, since the toilets were not usable. Such a situation, he said, got the authorities worried because some pupils took advantage of the situation to engage in delinquent acts outside the school premises.

He therefore said with a senior school in the area, it would be easier for parents to makes efforts to help teachers address certain issues that need immediate attention.

For his part, Village Development Committee chairperson, Mr Thabologo Mabuku requested that the village junior secondary be turned into a boarding one, noting that it accommodates students not from as far as Marobela, Makuta and Marapong lands.

He alluded to last year’s five cases of rape, where girls were attacked on their way to school.

He said the boarding facility could accommodate mainly such students from far places.

Commenting on the requests, Mr Molao said with the current financial constraints, which date as far back as 2008, government cannot build another senior secondary school within their vicinity as Nata was considered to be within reach.

However, he said the newly established Ministry of Basic Education had been mandated to look into pressing issues of education so that a remedy could be arranged to protect the welfare of the pupils.

He nonetheless appealed to parents to be hands on their children’s education in order to ease the teachers’ job. ENDS