19 Feb 2019

Letlhakeng Sub-district continues to experience high numbers of school dropouts with 84 and 1.5 per cent at primary and secondary schools respectively leaving during the third term of 2018.

Addressing a sub-district council session on February 18, the chairperson Mr Thomas Batlhophi said more boys than girls dropped out of school and most left without any communication whatsoever.

He said pregnancy also remained high with seven learners at secondary and one pupil having dropped out.

In an effort to curb the situation,

Mr Batlhophi said boot camps had been conducted to equip learners with life skills and strengthen parental involvement and active participation by parents and teachers associations in schools.

Councilor Batlhophi further said a total of 1 340 learners wrote their 2018 PSLE examinations compared to 1 274 in 2017 and the overall performance was 58.3 per cent compared to 60.8 per cent in 2017, a 2.5 per cent decline.

The chairperson further said the overall performance for JCE was 22.3 per cent out of a total of 798 students who wrote the examinations in 2018 compared to 21.4 per cent of 743 students in 2017.

Noting that there was a 0.9 per cent improvement in the results, he said schools’ performance at the national level was below target.

He said the sub region wiould intensify supervision and monitoring of teaching and learning.

On other issues, he said Mr Batlhophi said four decentralised food commodities for January 2019 had been procured through a tender for sorghum grains, samp, beans and peanut butter.

He expressed appreciation for  Botswana Defence Force’s offer to transport pupils fom Mosinki lands to Thebephatshwa Primary School. Ends