05 Sep 2022

Educators have been applauded for exploring other means of continuously delivering the curriculum to the nation at a time when the world is grappling with COVID-19 and its effects. 

The  Chobe council chairperson, Councillor Chimney Mululwane commended educators at the Ministry of Education and Skills Development Chobe Regional Excellence Awards in Mabele recently.

He said while in the past two years ministry was not able to recognise and appreciate excellence due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Chobe regional awards showed that all education stakeholders endured the pandemic and committed themselves to delivering the mandate of the ministry’s mandate. 

Mr Mululwane said despite the limited teacher-learner contact time due to isolations and quarantines, the mitigations employed such as the integration of ICT in teaching and learning, reduction of class sizes, amongst others bore positive results.

He challenged teachers, learners, parents and officers to be proactive in delivering the 21st century learner despite the challenges brought by COVID-19.

He said the Chobe Region had for the past years reflected a positive trail of academic excellence especially at primary school level.

Mr Mululwane hoped that the secondary schools could follow suit and embrace the academic excellence culture.

“As we celebrate today, let us reflect on our approaches towards service delivery and ask ourselves whether we are exerting ourselves to full potential,” he said.

Earlier, the director of Regional Operations, Mr Elijah Motlhabi said since 2019 the region performed at 77.4 per cent ABC, in 2020 scored 77 per cent ABC while last year it attained 74.5 percent ABC.

He said the region had been maintaining position three nationally since 2018 to 2020 and the insignificant drop in 2021 relegated it to position 4 nationally.

Mr Motlhabi said even though the Chobe region was doing well in Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE), the secondary level was opposite.

He said the Junior Certificate Examinations (JCE) performance failed to reach the national target in the last four years and last year an average of 34.9 per cent ABC was registered in the two secondary schools.

He however said recently positive strides towards improvement by Liswaani 1 JSS were noted as they continued to post value added results.

Mr Motlhabi said it was a  welcome development which should be nurtured as the region subscribed towards ensuring improved results.

He appealed to students, teachers, parents and various stakeholders to join hands with the region to come up with best strategies to place Chobe amongst the best performing regions.

Mr Motlhabi said the region organises awards ceremony every year as a way of encouraging and motivating commitment to inculcate competitive spirit which in turn brings excellence in the region.

He congratulated the school head of Mabele Primary School, Ms Mildred Saul for leading a committed and focused team as the school had a good history of good performance.

He said it was the second time in four years that the school was celebrated for position one in the region and it attained 85 per cent in the 2021 PSLE results.

Sharing the best practices, Ms Saul said during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the school prepared a lot of material for learners to study at home.

She said post lockdowns, teachers committed their weekend and holiday time to learners. Teachers managed to build learner confidence for them to learn independently from teachers and the classroom environment, she said.

Ms Saul said both the teachers and learners had targets that they committed to attaining.

The excellence awards were held under the theme, “Achieving Excellence amid COVID-19 and beyond” and the wards were in five categories namely academics, teaching, non-teaching, stakeholders and Director’s award. Ends