14 Feb 2018

A sound strategic plan is the key to success and this can be attested to by Orapa Junior Secondary School which emerged tops in the 2017 Junior Certificate Examinations results.

The school’s performance has remained consistent for a number of years and this according to its captain, Ms Kolobetso Seabe, is all thanks to a culture of good performance that the schools has been accustomed to for years.

Orapa JSS has set itself apart with a staff dedicated and focused on delivering nothing but good results.

Clearly their secret is working because the school has been exchanging position one and two with Nanogang Junior Secondary School in Gaborone.

In 2015 and 2016 the school attained position two and emerged number one in the 2017 JCE results respectively. According to Ms Seabe, the school had set itself a target and although they scooped number one, they were not yet where they wished to be.

“We have to work towards our target and that is when we can say we have achieved our goal,” she said.

The youthful team would not be derailed by factors such as dilapidated classes or lack of salary increment and instead have vowed that those would not affect their morale and their desire to deliver.

“The school management analysed the results after they were released and each member of staff had to account,” stated Ms Seabe. By doing so, she said they were able to come up with strategies on how each subject could be improved.

She said this involved students who would be expected to account for their results and track their performance.

“The school has a performance tracking tool which assits us to monitor performance annually,” she stated.

Active participation by stakeholders such as Debswana and parents, Ms Seabe said, helped the school improve performance.

She said they had developed among students, a culture of reading to which they were showing commitment.

“They have a study period from 630am to 730am in the morning and that they do religiously,” stated Ms Seabe. Performance she said had been boosted by remediation programmes sponsored by Debswana.

The company has also engaged specialists in English, Mathematics and Science subjects who assist all students regardless of their performance and motivational speakers to boost morale of students.

Ms Seabe said it also helped that the school had a very active and effective Student Representative Council, able to resolve conflicts among students and also committed towards producing good results. Ends