28 Nov 2018

 The Kweneng District Development Committee (DDC) has expressed concern over modest academic performance of the district’s schools.

The Assistant District Commissioner, Mr Kabelo Ntopo told the Kweneng full district council seating on November 26, that the district experienced poor performance overall as none of the schools attained the mid-term target. 

Mr Ntopo stated that the overall academic performance in primary schools was 63 per cent from a target of 80 per cent, followed by junior schools’ performance of 15.4 per cent from a target of 50 per cent and senior schools which targeted 32 per cent but only attained 14 per cent overall. 

“These results are as poor as they are from mock exams and mid-term exams and to some extent can also be said to be a reflection of what the district should expect as final results for this year, looking at the time factor,” he said.

Primary schools have nonetheless emerged best performers but the challenges therefore remain within junior and senior schools to uphold the promising performance. 

He said even though the enrollment is high at 63 per cent, the district experienced some pitfalls; amongst them being high numbers of school dropouts, standing at 211 from January to September this year, due to a number of issues such as teenage pregnancy. 

Mr Ntopo said continuous decline of male adult enrollment has also been regarded as one of eyebrow raising issues. “The total enrollment currently stands at 63 005, there is a slight decrease of 0.5%. 

The obvious challenge that the district faces is inadequate learning infrastructure facilities resulting in classes being taught in the open, he said. 

He said the district had completed maintenance of Maboane, Metsibotlhoko and Sorilatholo Primary schools, while other projects were at various stages.

When opening the session, Council Chairperson Mr Jeffrey Sibisibi expressed worry over waste management issues.

He explained that fire incidents at the landfill slow down its operations, which he said was disturbing.

Mr Sibisibi said a waste carrier vehicle was evacuated from the landfill on the 12th September 2018, when it was spotted with burning waste upon arrival at the landfill, indicating that some of the landfill fires possibly resulted from mixing waste with ignitable materials.

He said following the incident, landfill operations were halted to rectify the fire outbreak situation and relevant stakeholders were alerted about the fire incidents so that they could ferry necessary resources and assistance.

Mr Sibisibi said prior to the incident, residents from the affected villages, through Dikgosi, were advised to seek medical help from nearby health facilities if they experienced any complications and that landfill services were fully restored after two weeks.

He appealed to members of the public to avoid disposing hot ash and any ignitable materials in refuse bins.

Furthermore, he said the Department of Forestry and Range Resources urges members of the public to always exercise caution when handling fire to reduce outbreaks and that ranch owners must construct firebreaks around their ranches to minimise fire damage during veldt fire outbreaks.

“The contract for maintenance of fire breaks is in its second year, from a total of 765 km firebreak network, a 668 km portion has been awarded for maintenance for the 2018/19 financial year. 

The total distance of fire break network maintained so far is 619 km, constituting 80.9% of the awarded stretch,” said Mr Sibisibi. ENDS