27 Jan 2019

Two junior secondary schools in the North East District have lived up to expectations by being among the top 10 nationally in the Junior Certificate results.

The two are Setlalekgosi Junior Secondary School from Francistown and Thamani Junior Secondary School from Tshesebe.

Leading the region by example, Setlalekgosi JSS has been in the national top 10 for the past six years.

The school finds itself at position four nationwide in the just released results with a 72.8  per cent pass and a total of 7 As while Thamani JSS made its debut in the national top 10 by obtaining position 10 with a 64.5 per cent  pass, recording a total of 11 As.

In an interview with BOPA recently, Setlalekgosi school head, Mr Babuluki Bajiti attributed the school’s good performance to a number of reasons, among them qualified teachers who were committed and disciplined. 

He said teachers at the school worked under little supervision and were able to meet set targets and at times exceeded them.

Mr Bajiti noted that another reason the school did well every year was because pupils were focused, disciplined and well behaved, adding that although there were signs of drug abuse among a few,  a majority of them were generally well behaved.

The school head further stated that the support they got from parents played a pivotal role in the overall performance of the school.

He said parents were involved in their children’s school work and participated in school activities.

Mr Bajiti emphasised that for a school and its pupils to produce good results, there was a need for all relevant stakeholders to be active, adding that at Setlalekgosi, community leadership, which included area councillors and MP, as well as dikgosi were involved in ensuring that the school performed satisfactorily every year by offering their support and mentorship.

Being the smallest school structurally in the region, Mr Bajiti said they were faced with some challenges, which he however said did not deter them from producing good results.

Some of the challenges included shortage of classrooms, shortage of staff houses and an average student- teacher ratio of fifty to one.

For his part, Thamani JSS school head, Mr Fanta Mpha also attributed his school’s performance to committed teachers and pupils.

He added that as a boarding school, class teachers played a role of parents in the school and as a result mentored pupils.

Mr Mpha also explained that last year’s syllabus was completed by late August, which gave students and teachers over a month to prepare for examinations.

“We also had mentoring by parents, to an extent that they brought in motivational speakers to address pupils,” he said.

Asked how being in a rural village may have affected results, Mr Mpha confidently stated that being in a rural area was not a factor in the performance of the school and added that they too were afforded the same opportunities and resources as other schools in towns and villages around the country.

However, he noted that they had a challenge of shortage of water as they could go for many days without water and shortage of staff accommodation, which in turn forced some staff members to commute from outside Tshesebe.

Mr Mpha advised that good results required hard work and commitment from pupils, teachers, parents and all stakeholders.

North East Regional Director in the Ministry of Basic Education, Mr Labane Mokgosi said he was impressed with the results in the region though he believed they could do much better.

He further noted that he was not surprised by the results as Setlalekgosi was normally the best performing school in the region.

Mr Mokgosi stated that he intended to visit all the schools in his region together with his team to offer help and support to ensure better performance.

He explained that the exercise would entail making recommendations to schools, offering advice and making follow ups on issues raised in the past.

There would also be inspections of schools that were struggling or those that had signs of instability in order to help them improve.

He noted that it was important to visit schools during the first term so that they progressed with them as the year went on, urging everyone from the teacher to the student to the parent to play their part. ENDS