14 Jul 2017

President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama has underscored the importance of recognising outstanding performance in the three levels of basic education.

Speaking at the eighth Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) excellence awards in Gaborone yesterday, President Khama said through the event, BEC recognised, acknowledged and rewarded outstanding performance of students to encourage those who were still learning to aim for excellence.

“Your temperament, ability to stay focused and not be distracted by trivial things, commitment to work even harder and choice of appropriate career are crucial elements for the future development of the country,” he said.

President Khama said awardees had a golden opportunity to form the core human capital that would propel Botswana from a middle income economy to a developed country.           

He emphasised government’s commitment to support the course, noting that education remained one of the best ways to uplift the lives of Batswana.

He said there was additional advantage for those honoured as government gave them an opportunity to access education programmes in top institutions locally and outside.

He observed that as a result of the excellence awards, signs of improvement in students’ performance had started to show.

He noted that for the past two years the quality of grades at JCE and BGCSE had assumed an upward trajectory.

“I am confident that this trend, however modest, will continue steadily into the future at a greater pace,” he said.

President Khama said another positive development was that students were now performing to the standards set for the awards. He noted that in this year’s BGCSE results, some awardees were obtaining A grades as opposed to what their predecessors had achieved, adding that it reflected a positive impact the awards had made on learner performance.

President Khama further commended the private sector for their support of the awards since inception as well as the Ministry of Basic Education and BEC for supplementing the resources to ensure that the awards were sustained and held annually.

He said the private sector had over the years provided all kinds of support, including government initiatives such as Adopt-A School.

“We highly value the partnerships and I would like to encourage you to do more,” he said.

For her part, basic education minister, Dr Unity Dow lauded the conceivers of the awards, and for managing to sustain them for the past eight years.

She said the awards were an inspiration that would be remembered by recipients and family members as well as the teaching community.

Botswana Examinations Council chairperson, Dr Brian Mokopakgosi said there were 37 recipients who were the cream of 2016 out of the 120 000 candidates who sat for the examinations.

He also added that since inception of the awards, there had been a remarkable improvement in student grades.

The overall top achiever from St Joseph’s, Kago Motsoma, who had 10 A grades got the President’s award and P20 000, followed by MaterSpei’s Agetha Charlie, who got the minister’s award and P10 000, while Refilwe Kebadireng got BEC chairperson’s award and P5 000.

Other categories included top achievers. All recipients got trophies and other incentives. ENDS