29 Jun 2020

Maun Senior Secondary School management has decried lack of support from the school’s owners and board of governors.

The school is owned by the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA) in Botswana and United Methodist Church from Zimbabwe.

The school management told Maun East area MP, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile during a meeting, that there was no connection between the school and the said churches or the board of governors as they never met to share the school’s challenges.

Mr Kekgonegile had wanted to know how the churches were supporting the school and he was also concerned about its poor performance, as compared to other mission schools, such as St Joseph and Mater Spei colleges.

He learnt that some members of the board once came on a meet and greet mission, but did not give management time to share challenges faced by the school.

The management team indicated that the school was marred by a lot of challenges, which the founders were not on board to help address.

They said the churches must own up to the challenges because the infrastructure belonged to them. They also underscored the need for the churches to take capabilities of appointed board members into consideration, noting that they should ensure education was driven by the right people, who could set a good standard for the school.

The school head, Ms Lekala Legwaila informed the MP that finances were a major challenge, which hindered smooth operation of the school. 

The subvention from the government, she said was not adequate, hence challenges to pay non-teaching staff salaries.

The non-teaching staff, she said were not government employees and yet there was no provision for their salaries from the church, adding that their wage bill stood at over half a million a month.

This financial year, Ms Legwaila  said the government allocated them P7 million part of which had been spent on COVID-19 initiatives which meant they had a deficit already.

She noted that the non-teaching staff were paramount, as the school could not run without them. 

With regard to poor performance, the school chaplain, Rev Felicia Ramaribana pointed out that non participation of parents in the education of their children was the major contributing factor.

She said even when invited to meetings, only 100 parents would attend in a school of a population of over 1 000 students.

In addition, Rev. Ramaribana noted that lack of parental guidance was also worrisome, as some students were staying on their own, resulting in issues of indiscipline.

MP Kekgonegile appreciated the challenges and encouraged management not to despair, but commit to turning things around as far as performance was concerned.

He assured management of his support, noting that education was among his  top three priorities. He therefore proposed that they should meet every three months to introspect and see if there was improvement.

Mr Kekgonegile also proposed coming up with an initiative to mobilise the private sector to invest in education with a view to revive the school to its past glory. ends