14 Mar 2021

Seepapitso Senior Secondary School head has applauded the three learners who have been chosen for the top achievers programme.

In an interview, Mr Kgari Ramodisa said the three learners had proved beyond reasonable doubt that those still in the learning process could also make it. Such performance, he said, was timely because the school was on a transformation drive and contemplative of how best they would reward them.

Mr Ramodisa also applauded the country’s 19 top achievers, saying such performance was a yardstick towards attaining a knowledge-based economy.

“This also helps to explore how far the country is moving from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy and how far it will take to get there,” he said.

Mr Ramodisa said excellent performance in schools placed the country on a high pedestal for economic transformation.

“Such excellent performance means that the country is one foot into the fourth industrial revolution path that will transform the economy from a resource-based one to a knowledge-based economy. 

Excellent results also avail an opportunity for learners to venture into career paths that are scarce in the country to bridge economic gaps and further attracts sponsorship from various organisations to train in various disciplines that will contribute to the economy,” he said.

He added that a knowledge-based economy allowed the workforce to fuse production techniques that improved quality of products, thus transforming the economy for a better Botswana.

He said such a move would allow the skilled workforce to drive the economy through technologies, thus accelerating service delivery.

“Temperament, ability to stay focused and not be distracted by trivial things, commitment to work even harder and choice of appropriate career are crucial elements for the future development of the country,” he said.

Mr Ramodisa shared that back in the 90s the school was excelling, but drastically dropped over the years, therefore challenging the management to come up with counter-strategies to improve its performance.

The school is perked at position 18 in the 2020 BGCSE, an improvement of 10 places up from 28 in 2019.

He said he believed that learners were trainable and could compete with the best in the country, hence instilling competence and competitiveness among them remained paramount in attaining desired results.

He said the school had designed programmes to facilitate the learning process including packaging revision material in soft copy as well as augmenting learning time for the task at hand through weekend study and cluster or peer education to close performance gaps.

He added that some had extra lessons from 7am and learners were encouraged to set targets and evaluate mid-way so to change approach if need be.

Given that the school had never, since 2015, had learners being a part of top achievers, he said they had to introduce the house system and bring in efficacy, which worked to the affirmative.

Meanwhile, Mr Ramodisa thanked all stakeholders who had made it possible for the school to attain the good results. Ends