19 Jul 2017

The academic and general staff at Linchwe II Junior Secondary School have been commended for playing a supportive role towards the school’s academic excellence.

Speaking during the school’s victory celebration at Phakalane Golf Estate in Gaborone recently,  Mr Aaron Nyelesi, deputy director corporate communications at BOCRA, said today’s learning environment faced a different set of challenges, but that the staff were able to work as a team by steering students away from issues of indiscipline.

“Indeed to obtain position 12 countrywide and position one in non-urban schools is a fit worth celebrating. You collectively deserve a pat on the back and encouragement to continue on your relentless pursuit to take this school to the next level,” he said

He said every parent would acknowledge how challenging it was to raise a child and mould him or her to full potential, and that teachers were not celebrated enough given their immeasurable contribution in the lives of students.

He noted that most of the people who went to school before independence and immediately after independence were taught under trees and had no exercise books to write on.

“While they mainly went as far as Standard Six as the highest qualification, these are the people which the success of our country rests, and it’s all thanks to teachers who facilitated and widened life opportunities,” he said.

He stated that BOCRA would contribute 10 tablets to teachers who excelled the most.

For his part, the school head, Mr Patrick Modisi commended the staff at Linchwe II JSS for having shown cooperation to ensure that students excelled academically.

“Our performance from 48 to 56 per cent is nothing less than the description ‘quantum leap’ in our own right. We saw some of our staff work even awkward hours forfeiting their overtime pay to ensure students make for lost time. I have also seen a change of attitude for the better by many members of staff since last year,” he said.

He explained that the benchmarking exercise undertaken by the school to one of the schools in Gaborone and further implementation of those strategies had proven to be helpful.

Giving motivational words, Mr Themba Nkhwalume from Architects of Change encouraged staff to find their value and align them to the school’s mission and vision.

He said sometimes organisations struggled because members had not found where they belonged or how they added value to the organisation.

“Failure to identify one’s self value jeopardise results, and in your case children’s performance. Once you identify your value, what you are inside will reflect on the outside,” he said.

Both academic and general staff were awarded certificates.BOPA