15 Nov 2017

Permanent Secretary to the President, Mr Carter Morupisi has hailed government’s decision to introduce reception classes in the schools.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony on Saturday, Mr Morupisi said reception class plays a huge role in the readiness of children for primary school.

He said the children are exposed to a lot of educational material that mould them to be more attentive and excited in standard one, which would enough help them to attain better results than if they did not go through reception.

He congratulated the reception class teachers, particularly for their patience, perseverance and determination.

The theme: ‘building a foundation for excellence’, he said meant that the inspirations of producing a great number of boys and girls, men and women who can continue contributing to the country’s socio-economic growth if a good education foundation is invested into can be realised.

He encouraged the youngsters who were graduating to keep that passion to learn, read, colour pictures, exercise, play, eat healthily and most importantly, listen to their parents, teachers and all other older members of the community.

Mr Morupisi also encouraged Lerala Primary School students to always be exemplary to the young ones.

He said they should not bully them and instead encourage them to learn and assist them in anything they struggle with at schools.

“Remember that you are their inspiration and they spend most of their time with you in the school premises, therefore you have to take care of them and teach them good things so that they can grow into responsible young boys and girls who trust and respect their elders”, he said.

He noted that teachers in the school particularly pre- education teachers are guided by the national syllabus which clearly stipulates key areas of focus essentially to equip the child with the required information and skills to help them progress well in standard one.

He noted with appreciation that within each of the learning areas, there were outcomes divided into various competencies with performance indicators to enable tracking of the child’s progress. 

He said the indicators showed what a child who had gone through the programme should be able to say and  do.

“This is where the aspect of Outcome Based Education comes in,” he said.

He informed parents that being involved in their children’s education was the best thing that they could ever do for themselves.

He said it was going to be even more important that all parents and guardians alike take time daily to help their children with their school work when they start standard one.

He said ‘teachers alone cannot succeed, they need your input too.’

He said he was aware that there were parents who were fond of keeping their children away from school and turn them into herd boys and girls.

He pleaded with parents to refrain from that because the same child that they were keeping away could  be the future President of the country

Mr Morupisi donated 100 school bags, a laptop and a printer to the school. BOPA