04 Apr 2019

Kweneng education regional director, Mr Benson Rauwe has appealed to junior secondary schools to maintain the good performance the pupils have obtained at primary schools.

Speaking during Borakalalo Primary School victory celebrations for surpassing the region’s target by attaining 83.2 per cent pass rate in the 2018 PSLE results, Mr Rauwe said it had remained the region’s greatest concern that pupils graduate with good PSLE grades, but they decline at junior schools.  

The school’s PSLE performance has been improving for the past three years as it attained 66.3 per cent in 2016, 89.7 per cent in 2017, which dropped to 83.2 per cent in 2018.

Mr Rauwe encouraged junior schools management to work closely and benchmark with their counterparts to exchange ideas and strategies as well as constantly  monitor and support pupils who attained good PSLE results to retain such results even in JC.

“The good performance by primary schools now remains a challenge to junior schools to maintain. It worries us to see quality students’ performance dropping,” he said.

He appreciated the hard work and commitment by PSLE class of 2018, and urged them to uphold it at junior school.

 “As the Ministry of Basic Education we want to nurture each and every child’s talent and potential through character building programmes such as extra-curricular activities. Therefore we need to team up as all relevant stakeholders to empower these pupils to grow their talents because they can sustain their lives in future,” he said.

He also urged parents to closely supervise their children’s academic progress by following them to their schools and monitoring their behaviour to help ease the burden on teachers.

When giving objectives of the day, head of department - learning difficulties, Ms Diketso Molebatsi appreciated the Parents Teachers Association and Borakalalo community for their splendid support and cooperation.

“There is unity between Borakalalo parents and the school management.

 I want to commend them for such a gesture. 

When we give pupils home tasks, parents gladly and actively take part in assisting them where they can,” she said.

For her part, Borakalalo Primary School head, Ms Mothusi Gaoforwe said she was certain that her school was heading in the right direction as they have introduced ICT as a way of grooming a computer literate generation.

She said as a way of recognising parental contribution, they grouped pupils into mini clusters to study together at home with parental supervision.

“We encourage pupils to read, more especially first thing in the morning. In cases of absconding, which is very minimal in our school, we do home visits and that has reduced drop out cases,” she said.

Ms Gaoforwe said her school, which has an enrollment of 700 pupils per year, has challenges like shortage of classrooms as six classes are conducted outside.

She also said they needed a staff room because all the 23 teachers worked in a stuffy room, something she said could pose a health hazard and discomfort.

There is also poor toilet water supply, which forces the 38 staff members to use only two pit latrines.

Ms Gaoforwe said among other challenges was shortage of text books, saying even though they were the most important in learning, it had been a long time since they got a supply. ENDS