15 Feb 2021

Chobe acting regional director (operations), Mr Elijah Motlhabi has expressed concern about the regions Junior Certificate Education (JCE) 2020 results.

In interview, he said the region was however determined to improve the performance from the current 29.46 per cent to reach the 50 per cent target.

He said in 2019 the region attained 30.1 per cent dropping from 34.06 per cent in 2018. 

Mr Motlhabi explained that analysis of individual schools performance over a period of seven years indicated that although Liswaani I junior secondary school had not reached the target, it continued to improve every year.

He cited that in 2018 and 2019, the school was at 29.6 per cent and 30.7 per cent respectively and last year it made a 38.5 per cent average.

As for Chobe junior secondary school, the acting director lamented that the school’s performance had been declining since 2018. 

He indicated that in 2018 the school attained 35.6 per cent and 2019 it achieved an average of 29.8 per cent while last year it netted 26.7 per cent.

He however, noted that Chobe junior secondary school had a number of challenges that could be attributable to the poor performance. 

He cited that one of the challenges was that the school’s enrolment grew every year, which he said overstretched teaching staff and resources.

Mr Motlhabi said the other contributory was that some parents were not working with the school. 

He noted that basic education regional operations office would continue to employ strategies to help improve the performance. 

He said apart from having the schools accounting for the results his office would increase the frequency of school visits, monitor them closely and come up with ways of motivating teachers and learners.

Mr Motlhabi also indicated the need for schools to introspect as external help would not benefit them if they did not identify what they were doing wrong. 

He noted that it was important for schools to ask for help from stakeholders in order to turnaround the results.

On shortage of teachers, he said the region recruited temporary teachers on time, but faced a challenge of some recruited teachers turning down the offers at the eleventh hour, resulting in some classes going for some time without teachers. 

Mr Motlhabi indicated that primary schools continued to do well in Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE). 

He said performance at PSLE was at an average of 70 per cent as opposed to the 30 per cent average at JCE. Ends