11 Mar 2020

Minister of Basic Education, Mr Fidelis Molao, has commended Matsha Community College in Kang for its 2019 BGCSE results.

When he visited the school recently, the minister said the school was previously overwhelmed with a lot of unfortunate situations, but through its visionary leadership,  it managed to move up the ranks.

He acknowledged management for its transformational strategies that eventually yielded results.

“It shows that indeed you worked against all the imperfections that hindered your advancement,” he said.

The past weeks saw the school receiving accolades for emerging amongst the top five best performing schools.

On that note, he challenged them to go an extra mile and keep their eyes on the ball, adding that all eyes would be on them from now onwards.

Minister Molao said he was aware of the challenges surrounding the teaching fraternity, but commended teachers for their efforts.

Through consultation with government, he said, challenges would be addressed in future.

He said pupils indiscipline was a major concern across the country, therefore, called on stakeholders to assist and instill discipline in schools.

The minister commended Matsha for making behavioural code part of their transformational strategy.

He, however, challenged teachers to lead by example if they were to foster discipline in schools, because pupils imitated how their teachers conduct themselves around them.

Mr Molao said the ministry was doing everything in its power to improve the education sector, but was financially constrained.

Despite the allocation of  P9 billion budget, he said the number of their employees stood at about 36 000, therefore  76 per cent was for salaries while 24 per cent provided for maintenance, food rations, stationery and other necessities. 

Mr Molao noted that, with such huge budget share, they were always forced to seek supplementary budget.

As a way of dealing with their unfortunate funds management situations, they resorted to taking prudent measures such as suspending some extra curricula activities.

He said they were battling with a hefty debt of P32 million overtime that emanated from the previous years.

To turn things around, the ministry engaged a task team that would pursue a pilot study on zero-based budget and would advise on strategies that would promote efficient allocation of resources.

Despite challenges besieging the teaching sector, Mr Molao said as part of the ministry’s transformation strategy, establishment of Botswana Teaching Professional Council was underway. 

He added that since government was committed to transforming the economy from resource based to a knowledge based one, the ministry was in the process of implementing multiple pathways guided by Education and Training Sector Strategic Plan (ETSSP).

For his part, Matsha College deputy head, Mr Olebile Mothoteng, applauded the minister for visiting their school to offer support after their remarkable performance.

He said that alone would motivate them to raise the bar to continue being abeacon of hope in the region and the country at large.

Mr Mothoteng credited their performance to their transformational strategies that included pupil behavioural change code, performance improvement initiatives for both teachers’ and pupils.

He said boot camps also helped them in the facilitation of molding pupils’ conduct.

However, he said they were still facing poor maintenance of school facilities as well as lack of furniture, vehicles, lab technicians and other supporting staff.

Head of department, Ms Dikeledi Leshope, pleaded with the minister to consider housing buildings and engineering services cadres in schools, so as to assist in the day to day maintenance of facilities.

She also decried about lack of promotions in their school and pleaded that those working in economically disadvantages areas should be being given incentives that would motivate them to work in such areas.

Principal registered nurse, Ms Tshwaragano Rasesia, pleaded with the minister to fully equip their clinics for them to discharge duties diligently. Ends