14 Sep 2022

 Communities in the Ngami constituency have been urged to play a role to improve the area’s academic results.

The call was made by  MP for Ngami, Mr Caterpillar Hikuama at a stakeholder meeting organised by ‘Make a Change’ in Gumare recently.

Mr Hikuama said poor performance of schools in the Ngami district was a concern as such he found a need to tour the constituency addressing stakeholders in the education sector.

He acknowledge that there were similar challenges across education sector throughout the country, such as shortage of staff accommodation and classrooms, but there were some which were peculiar to the Ngami area, such as lack of commitment to education from both parents and children.

“There is need for an honest reflection for academic results to improve,” he said, adding that attitude, mind set change and discipline were important for children to excel.

Mr Hikuama said some challenges included teachers overstaying in the area and a high number of temporary teachers who were given short contracts, leading to lack of continuity, thus negatively affecting academic results in the district.

He therefore appealed to stakeholders and community leadership to develop interest in improving academic results in their area.

Principal Education Officer from Gumare Sub Region, Ms Rita Mudongo said none of the primary schools in the sub region had reached the national target of 80 per cent between 2019 and 2021.

Ms Mudongo revealed that the 2019 Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) was 63 per cent, 59 per cent in 2020 and 51 per cent in 2021, while junior secondary schools attained 26.10 per cent in 2019, 27.9 per cent in 2020 and 29.40 in 2021.

She cited having many temporary teachers at both primary and junior schools in the sub-region as one of the challenges, revealing that there were 228 permanent teachers and 115 temporary teachers at primary school level and 173 permanent teachers and 67 temporary teachers at junior school level.

An Education Consultant, Mr Shandukani Hlabano, who shared experience from the North East district, said parents in that district closely monitored their children’s school work and had good rapport with teachers.

Mr Hlabano said the other factors were the role played by alumnis and the business community in education in their respective areas. The Chairperson of ‘Make a Change’, Mr Mompati Kadie said the organisation was formed to help improve the quality of education in the Ngami area, saying that could be achieved through stakeholder collaboration and community leadership involvement.

He said the organisation had facilitated a benchmarking workshop between Ngami and North East as a first step. ends