04 Sep 2018

Dikwididi Primary School in Kgatleng District has been hailed as a good performing school after they amassed an overall pass mark of 85.3 per cent, thereby scooping position one in the whole district.

Speaking during the commemoration of the birth of the Ministry of Basic Education (MoBE) on Friday, the Assistant Minister, Mr Thato Kwerepe thanked the teachers, parents and management of the school for putting a sterling performance.

He said the national Primary School Leaving Examinations results in 2017, showed an increase of 4.5 per cent in candidature with 71.6 per cent quality pass, adding that universal access to basic education stood at 96 per cent.

Mr Kwerepe said the ministry’s focus was more on teaching and learning so that they contribute significantly with everyone playing their different roles to make ‘Every Learner Succeed’.
“Educating a child is a collaborative effort, hence each and every one of us has a stake in creating the conducive environment for the growth of our children. Indeed it takes a whole village to raise a child,” said Mr Kwerepe.

The theme, Every Learner Must Succeed recognises that every learner is gifted differently and they would perform differently, he said.

The assistant minister said indeed every child could succeed, more so they were born with a certain talent or gift and they needed to be accorded an opportunity to become what they wanted to be.

He said the Kedikilwe Commission of 1994, which is commonly known as the Revised National Policy on Education came up with several recommendations among them the inclusion of vocational training so that not academically gifted students could perform well in other areas.

Mr Kwerepe further said the commission recommended nurturing of talent or gifts from a young age to help identify talent from young age.

He said government was committed to this journey and would continue to accord students an opportunity to excel in the areas of their choice.

He urged parents to work closely with teachers for the betterment of their children’s education.

In his remarks, the director of Agri Sales Botswana, Mr Gobusamang Rampa said he had been working closely with the school as he desires to see children succeed.

 He said ‘success is an attitude to win no matter the challenge’ and the theme therefore spells out the importance of helping children achieve their dreams.

Mr Rampa said every child despite their life challenges could succeed because each child was born with potential to do well in life and all they needed was to have an attitude and belief that they could make it.

The Agri Sales director emphasised the importance of roles played by parents in the children’s education and giving them an opportunity to explore their talents without focusing only on education.

He said some students were not gifted academically, but could do well in sports, hence the need to expose them to all sporting codes to identify the ones they love the most and help them succeed in them.

In his welcoming remarks, Kgosi Letsebe Mpete applauded the teachers and management for coming up with a plan to get good performance.

He said in 2015, he met with the school management to talk on the challenges of low academic performance and they told him that the situation would improve from 2016 and he was happy to be a testimony to that as their words did not fall to the ground.

Kgosi Mpete said government took a wise decision to form the Ministry of Basic Education as it focused on children at a young age, hence their challenges could be identified, then assisted accordingly.

Giving a vote of thanks, the Member of Parliament for Mochudi East, Mr Moagi Molebatsi encouraged students to work hard as all of them have the potential to succeed.

He said God had created all with the ability to succeed and all that they needed was exposure to opportunity and guidance to excel. Ends