11 Nov 2013

The establishment of a point system in secondary schools was motivated by an initiative of leveling sponsorship requirements for all students destined to enroll in priority programmes in both public and private local institutions.

This was said by the Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Patrick Masimolole, in response to a question in Parliament on November 8.

Okavango MP, Mr Bagalatia Arone had wanted the minister to explain the use of the point system in secondary schools to determine progression of students to tertiary institutions vis-a-viz their unique environment of study. 

Mr Arone said the system was not fair in view of the fact that schools in urban areas, compared to the schools in rural areas, had a lot of disparities in terms of resources at their disposal.

“That is where my concern is. That, how do you expect a child in Ghanzi Senior Secondary School, which is poorly resourced to be competing and achieve the same points as a child who is in a school like Gaborone Senior Secondary School,” he questioned. 

In response, Mr Masimolole said the main thrust was that applicants should be free to decide on preferred institutions without fearing inequality on the basis of points requirements and by inference, the quality of education offered by the institution. 

He further explained that the use of points acted as a way of balancing entry requirements into tertiary institutions, adding that it made sense to apply the same rule to government sponsorship.

“The allocated budget to a large extent regulates the number of students who can be sponsored and therefore there has to be a fair and consistent regulatory mechanism which is used to determine the limit,” he said. 

In addition, Mr Masimolole said the point system helped to; consolidate different qualifications offered at secondary exit point for purpose of equality on award of sponsorship and also to determine a comparison between other postsecondary qualifications for the purpose of sponsorship.

The point system, he said also helped to standardize the subject requirements given the different number of subjects that students could attempt at secondary level, adding that ‘calculations of the grade points average take into account the best subjects a student attempted.’ 

“An opportunity exists for consideration of waving the best six subjects average point system for the purpose of sponsorship to technical and vocational institutions,” he added.

He explained that this would mean selection to certain vocational courses might not need to follow the current best six subjects with a preset aggregate of points, but rather a system where a student who wanted to study a particular programme might need a credit in a specific related subject and three other subjects at a pass level. 

However, the assistant minister said it must be noted that while the requirements might be relaxed for entry to technical colleges, ‘the graduants of these courses would at one stage or the other wish to progress to diploma or degree level of study and the requirements for overall admission might be higher.’ Ends