13 Jun 2021

Nata Senior Secondary School’s head has promised to turn the fortunes of the school, which has only made it to the top 10 once in its history.

Speaking during a meeting with the Minister of Basic Education, Mr Fidelis Molao, recently, Mr Gaositwe Chakalisa said they were on a mission to become one of the best in the country.

Giving a brief background on the school, Mr Chakalisa said his was a school that had only once, in its 10 years of existence, managed to be counted among the top 10 of the 34 senior secondary schools in the country and it has been downhill since.

He said indeed the beauty of the infrastructure belies greatness since the results were not commensurate with the school’s aesthetics, as for the past five years, the results had been on a downward spiral, without any improvement in sight.

He said in 2016, they were in position 13, then moved to their best in 2017 when they scooped position 9, but thereafter, the scales have not been kind as they got position 28 in 2018, 31 in 2019 and position 32 last year, out of the 34 schools.

This, the school head said, was worrisome, adding that even though the school had qualified teachers, they just have not been able to get the winning formula, hence their resolve to turn the curse on its head and produce outstanding results.

Mr Chakalisa said as a part of their journey in search of greatness, the school management and teachers were in constant conversation, to come up with mechanisms, that would see them beating the odds and posting impressive results.

 He said he was confident that next year, their results would to be counted amongst the best, adding that although he was very new at the school, having joined the team this month, he was hopeful of nothing short of a miracle, come results time.

The school head lamented that they were far much behind in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) integration, saying their server was very old and needed an upgrade; there were no tablets for students nor laptops for teachers; hence their total reliance of the traditional way of teaching only.

However, Mr Chakalisa appreciated the fact that the school, unlike others across the country, did not have issues of shortage of staff, classroom or office accommodation.

He said had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic, the school of 1214 students; 1034 boarders and 180 day scholars; with a staff complement of 111 permanent and eight temporary teachers and 57 support staff, would be celebrating its 10th anniversary, this year.

Commenting on the update, Minister Molao said as part of its ICT drive, government was working on a programme called Smart Botswana, which entailed installing Wi-Fi across all its institutions in the country. 

He said the first phase, which was being undertaken this financial year, would cover 300 villages and schools, adding that procurement of gadgets was underway and senior schools were going to be the first to benefit, followed by junior and primary schools. ENDS