11 Mar 2020

The North West District Council (NWDC)  is scheduled to pilot a playgroups project to cater for areas with no day care centres.

When updating a council meeting on early childhood development, the council chairman, Mr Kebareeditse Ntsogotlho, said the department of community development had provided P507 000 as a grant for 10 playgroups.

He said 40 per cent of the funds would be used for development purposes, while 60 per cent would be for operational costs. 

The project, he said, had contributed to early childhood and development services, noting that there were 29 playgrounds across the district.

Furthermore, he stated that P1 million had been approved to construct two more facilities in Chukumuchu and Ghani at P500 000 each.

Mr Ntsogotlho said the reception programme was producing desired results, noting that at the beginning of 2020, 56 out of 69 primary schools offered the programme compared to 49 in 2019.

Currently, he said, there were 2 319 learners in the reception programme, but expressed concern that the learners were still challenged because they did not have modified toilets to suit their age.

He pleaded with councillors to continue prioritising the programme when making budget provisions and also to solicit funds from the private sector to develop it further.

The meeting was also informed that school enrolment in the district was increasing gradually, leading to shortages of classroom space and over spillages.

Mr Ntsogotlho said the worst cases were experienced at junior schools such as Ngambao, Gowa, Okavango and primary schools such as Shakawe, Kathiana Mahunga and Mathiba.

He stated that a total of 73 789 learners had been enrolled at primary level in 2020, compared to 32 747 in 2019, while enrolment in junior schools increased from 10 880 in 2019 to 11 520 in 2020.

With regard to performance, the chairman noted that the district had shown improvement in all the 2019 examination results.

The Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) results improved from 58.3 per cent to 64.6 per cent with schools in Kajaja and Kgosietsile scoring 100 per cent pass rate.

He said Kajaja had the highest quality pass rate, where all learners attained either grade A or B. Mr Ntsogotlho pointed out that a total of 12 schools had outstanding performance of above the set national target of 80 per cent.

He expressed concern about 13 schools, which performed below 50 per cent, citing Khweeosee as the lowest performing school attaining 14.3 per cent in the 2019 PSLE.

Councillors learnt that the Junior Certificate Examination (JCE) results had also improved slightly from 24.6 per cent to 25.2 per cent in 2019, with the newly established Maitlamo scoring the highest in the region at 45.7 per cent.

 As for Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE), it was noted that there was also noticeable improvements where Shakawe Senior Secondary School results increased from 19.54 per cent to 21.61 per cent, while Maun Senior improved from 15.46 per cent in 2018 to 20.73 in 2019.

Mr Ntsogotlho underscored the need to strive for better results and called for stakeholder collaboration with the Ministry of Basic Education, intensified supervision through tracking learner performance and school visits as well as rigorous engagement of school leadershi. Ends