24 May 2018

Chairperson of Serowe Administration Authority, Mr Mpho Kooreme has urged parents to start disciplining all children and to desist from ignoring others who performed bad deeds just because they were not their biological children.

Mr Kooreme said this when presenting a keynote address at the Serowe Education Sub Regional Excellence Awards, which were held at Lady Khama Hall recently.

He called on parents to assume the parenting role to all children and to treat every child like their own as a way of building the nation.

“We need to own up and assume our roles and responsibilities. We also need to understand that the same child we neglect and ignore will be part of the people degenerating morals in our society,” he said.

Mr Kooreme said as politicians their role should be to advocate for the provision of infrastructure and ensuring a conducive learning and teaching environment, adding that they were committed that such needs were met by government.

On the theme: Long life learning and stakeholder participation, Key to economic development, Mr Kooreme said it was relevant as there was need for skills and lifelong learning of teachers.

“In order to undertake any job effectively, it is essential to have appropriate skills. It is no longer sufficient to rely on the skills and qualifications acquired at or before the start of the career,” he said.

Mr Kooreme said teachers needed to update and adapt their skills to the changing circumstances through learning.

He also said for economic development, there was need to enhance stakeholder involvement and social dialogue, adding that it was only through such that schools could benefit from such incentives for the betterment of students.

“Although we see the participation of the business sector in our schools, there are still gaps which we need to close as schools are in dire need of assistance,” he noted.

He called on stakeholders to ensure that they took part in such engagements in order to lend a helping hand for teachers to meet their targets.

Mr Kooreme commended all non-teaching staff, teachers and students who had been recognised for their efforts, and urged them not to tire as there was still more to be achieved.

“This is a team of people who were determined to suffer with the desire to enjoy later. I, therefore, implore all those who did not manage to emulate them,” he said.

Principal education officer, Ms Margaret Kgathi said although they did not met the regional target, a good number of their schools did.

She said they recorded good performances in primary schools.

“For junior secondary schools we recorded overall percentage pass rates of 40.26 in 2015, 37.35 in 2016 and 31.18 in 2017, while senior secondary schools recorded percentage pass rates of 25.22 in 2015, 25.44 in 2016 and 30.53 in 2017,” she noted. Ends