30 Oct 2022

Phemo Chaba of Mater Spei College was the toast of the night at the 13th Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) excellence awards on Friday walking away with  a golden star award and P15 000 for emerging tops in the 2021 BGCSE examinations.

Position two went to Katso Keti of Naledi Senior Secondary School who received the minister’s award and P7 500 while Ofentse Ramagapu of Moshupa Senior Secondary School came third and was honoured with the chairman's award and P5 000.

Overall, 41 pupils were recognised for their achievements in the PSLE, JCE and BGCSE as well as six special needs pupils who emerged top two in each of the three examination levels.

Vice President Slumber Tsogwane commended the class of 2021 for excelling despite writing examinations under difficult circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the excellence shown by the pupils resonated with government’s priority of creating a knowledge-based economy.  

Vice President Tsogwane said one key pre-requisite for the attainment of a knowledge-based economy was a young population that was creative, innovative and eager to learn. 

“The stars that we are celebrating today fit that profile. I must, however, remind the nation that this talent needs to be supported and nurtured appropriately by our education and training systems,” he said.

With education that was aligned with government priorities and learners who were creative and innovative, the country would be assured that a knowledge-based economy was within reach, said Mr Tsogwane.

For his part, Minister of Education and Skills Development, Dr Douglas Letsholathebe commended the achievers for excelling amid challenges.

They were also commended for leveraging on technology after pupils revealed that they used WhatsApp to discuss topics. 

That showed the learners were ahead on leveraging on technology, said the minister.

 Dr Letsholathebe said it gave him confidence that government was on the right track by issuing learners with tablets.

“I want to be remembered for transforming education through digitalisation,” he said. ends