03 Nov 2021

The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in Molepolole Administrative Authority (MAA) has been successful - Lentsweletau sub-council chairman, Mr Allan Jacobs has said. 

He said thus far, 23 667 people in the district have been fully vaccinated, while 40 493 have received the first dose. 

Mr Jacobs, who was addressing the sub-council meeting on Monday, said the sub district had received AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer vaccines. 

He said vaccination was carried out at public facilities such as dikgotla, Molepolole sports complex, Mafenyatlala and Shoprite malls to ease congestion, while outside Molepolole, vaccination was ongoing at health facilities. 

The sub council chairman, who is also councillor for Boribamo East, said following the lifting of the State of Emergency, some members of the community stopped complying with COVID-19 protocols, which has led to an increase in the number of COVID -19 cases. 

He said cases were rising in schools, especially boarding schools, giving the example of Shadishadi Primary School, which registered 226 cases as at October 27, 2021. 

Mr Jacobs said as at October 19, the sub district had registered 12 163 cumulative positive COVID-19 cases, 11 766 cumulative recovery cases and 198 deaths. 

On education, he said all schools had fully complied enough with COVID-19 protocols to accept students for Term 3, adding that 85.8 per cent of teachers and 81.3 per cent of non-teaching staff had received their COVID-19 jabs. 

He said the remaining numbers did not vaccinate due to medical reasons, self-isolations and quarantines. 

Meanwhile, Mr Jacobs said the sub-region registered an overall pass rate of 61.8 per cent in the national mock examinations of the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) held at the beginning of third term, while at secondary school level, the sub-region registered an average performance of 17.3 per cent in Merit and ABC (MABC) and 4.5 per cent in Merit, A and B (MAB). 

The sub-council chairman said by the end of Term 2, syllabus coverage was at 80 per cent at primary, while at secondary; this differed from subject to subject and ranged from 55 to 100 per cent. 

He said the backlog was mainly due to frequent quarantines for both staff and students. 

Mr Jacobs said strategies were introduced to cover the backlog and this included extended studies, weekend teaching as well as remediation and enrichment. 

“Schools are therefore ready for the National Examinations which are to run from the 20th October to 27th October 2021 for PSLE, and 01st November to 19th November 2021 and 06th October to 24th November 2021 for JCE and BGCSE respectively,” he said. ends