The school, which has been leading the pack for the past nine years and was gunning for a decade record, got position two, which blighted the school’s hitherto excellent academic record.

In an interview, the school head, Ms Constance Male said she was disappointed that the percentage of pass rate had declined both at the school and countrywide.

Ms Male said teachers at her school were worried and disappointed, wondering where they might have gone wrong and to go back to the drawing board to establish the reasons and map a way forward.

“I am delighted to congratulate our pupils on the superb exam results that are a true reflection of their hard work,” she said, adding that she recognised that 2020 was a difficult year with pupils facing uncertainty due to COVID-19.

She expressed pride for all that they had achieved and wished them luck as they moved to the next stage of their education.

St Joseph’s hosts a number of top achievers, including the overall best performer with 11A* and second best countrywide with 9A* 1A and 1C.

Ms Male said they would continue with their strategy and educate even through media platforms.

Ms Male applauded St Joseph’s teachers for the sterling job in the midst of the pandemic, saying the excellence of the top achievers had been attributed to the cooperation and commitment of both staff and parents.

She noted that St Joseph’s boasts of a strong Parents and Teachers Association (PTA), school management and parental support, revealing that parents were involved in the education of their children. She said parents even allowed their children to use their phones during the lockdown for e-learning purposes and for monitoring.

She also noted that parents were able to come into the school during lessons, and hailed them for assisting in their children’s projects. She said some assisted with typing, collecting and photocopying educational material for the pupils.

Ms Male also said parents assisted even with resources and played a major role in supporting their children’s education, adding that they even attended parents- teachers’ meetings in large numbers.

Nevertheless, Ms Male said 2020 was a difficult year, with challenging circumstances although that should not be used as a scapegoat.

She said normally they had been able to contain learners, but that it was difficult for last year’s group, as some children were not willing to learn and study.

She explained that some children needed constant present, physical availability of educators, which was not always possible last year.

She said some pupils’ learning and classroom performance declined as a result of e-learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying those were some of the reasons that could have contributed to the low pass mark and missing position one.

Amongst them she indicated that there was compulsory public lockdowns, especially for Greater Gaborone that could have affected the pupils performance.

Furthermore, Ms Male said there were pupils that were not keen to study at the school hall after the lockdown, but prefered to go home.

“I even requested that children that did not wish to use the school hall for afternoon study have their parents indicate that in writing,” she said

She said COVID-19 disrupted their normal way of learning as they would normally use school holidays to continue teaching to augment the formal school calendar.

She said they normally finished the school syllabus before the stipulated time, and that they then concentrated on revision. However, she said they could not do that last year.

“Even the number of tests were very few for revision purposes,” she said, adding that it also contributed to the decline in academic performance.

She, nevertheless, said they were hopeful that this year they would complete everything on time having learnt a few things about COVID-19.

Ms Male noted that the current learners were committed to take the school back to its glory days, adding that they were already showing commitment to their studies.

She revealed that already they were in study groups, and had also introduced a COVID-19 team club to encourage one another to take proper care of themselves.

Meanwhile, Ms Male said teachers lived in a panic mode due to COVID-19 as they believed that they were more susceptible.

“Maybe because of their age and as they met more children per day, hence they needed more enlightenment and counselling.

She nevertheless encouraged them not to panic and carry on with their mandate. ENDS