16 Sep 2018

Naledi Senior Secondary School 40th anniversary celebrations are said to be an opportunity to celebrate progress made by the school since its inception in 1978.

Speaking at the 40th anniversary celebration ceremony, which was attended by First Lady Ms Neo Masisi among others, school head Mr Othusitse Othusitse said the school started as a junior secondary school and transformed into a senior secondary schools as time went by.

He said the physical infrastructure of the school had expanded tremendously and enrollment stood at 1 670, with 21 classes for both Form Fours and Fives.

“There are 132 teachers and 42 ancillary staff,” he said, adding the school was one of the top five schools in Botswana in performance.

He paid tribute to school founders for laying a strong foundation on which the school’s legacy was built.

Mr Othusitse further said the school had never performed outside the top five since its last anniversary in 2008.

“For four consecutive years, that is 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, we occupied position one and set a national record of 70.19 per cent in 2011,” he said.

He said the school was also performing  well in extracurricular activities such as football, netball, basketball, karate, drama, Junior Achievement Botswana club, debate and others.

“Our Junior Achievement Botswana club has even gone to places such as Latvia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, and they are still going to go outside representing the country,” he said.

Nevertheless, Mr Othusitse said one of their biggest challenge was lack of accommodation for staff.

“We also have a challenge when it comes to reprographic and related equipment,” he said, adding they were also troubled by lack of recreational infrastructure and furniture for staff.

Mr Othusitse however said the majority of students were well behaved, even though they lacked motivation towards their school work.

“If we could go over this hurdle of self-motivation among the majority of our students, then we would compete with any schools anywhere,” he said.

Mr Othusitse further said to counter lack of motivation from student, the school had introduced morning studies to get ‘our students to study as soon as they enter our gates' to avoid situations where they idle.

Secondly, he said they had  introduced Saturday study for Form Fives and also extended afternoon studies.

They also track  students’ performance so as to give support at individual level.

The celebrations brought together students, parents, teachers, school administration, alumni, the community and business sector, among others.

Guest speaker, Mr Riaan Van Rooyen, Avani Gaborone Resort & Casino general manager, encouraged students to take their studies seriously as education was key to unlocking a better life for themselves.

He said the school had produced a number of alumni who were contributing significantly to Botswana’s socio-economic development.

Mr Van Rooyen further said since its establishment, the school had been dedicated to the advancement of education and production of skilled workforce in Botswana.

As part of giving back to the school and contributing to its 40th anniversary celebrations, Naledi Senior School Class of 1996 recently refurbished the school’s assembly area to the value of P120 000.

The successful execution of the project was made possible through pledges and contributions from the Class of 1996 graduates, who coincidentally would also be turning 40 years.

Representing the Class of 1996, Mr Seth Mongwaketse explained that they had approached the school to find out what needed to be developed in the school, and they received over 50 requests from which they chose to renovate the assembly area.

“We found the experience to be a magnificent challenge, especially since the school had grown immensely to enroll 1 600 students compared to the 400 some 22 years ago,” he said.

Mr Mongwaketse however said they welcomed the challenge as they were all determined to do something good for the school that had molded them into people they were today.

He said upon completion of the assembly area, they visited the school’s special needs department where they found there was a malfunctioning refrigerator and they replaced it with a new one worth P2 500.

The school also held its prize giving ceremony for best performing students in academic work.

Special prizes were also awarded to deserving school community members. ENDS