16 Jan 2025

St Joseph’s College has taken an initiative to organise a boot camp for its Form Five students to address issues of indiscipline and low academic performance at the school.

Targeting over 800 learners who will be sitting for examinations at the end of the year, the programme is expected to help pupils to change their mind-set towards education by promoting discipline, respect integrity and academic excellence.

The decision to organise a boot camp prior to the commencement of term one, was arrived at following escalating cases of indiscipline and failure to meet the set academic targets.

“We are a school that prides itself with a culture of excellence and the expectation is for our teachers and learners to adapt to this culture,” said the school head, Ms Constance Male in an interview.

The school attained position one nationally in the 2023 Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations and has been in the top five best performing schools for many years.

However, she expressed disappointment with this year’s cohort for performing below expectation and for showing bad behaviours, which affected teaching and learning resulting in teachers spending most of the time disciplining pupils.

The boot-camp, she said, was organised by the school with the support of parents and other stakeholders in a bid to curb bad behaviour in school and to prepare learners for their final examinations by imparting them with study skills and basic life skills.

“We do not want to wait until our pupils are out of hand, hence the decision to take them on board so that they know what is expected of them going forward.”

Ms Male further said the learners responded well to the programme which incorporated studying in the morning, exercising, presentations from various stakeholders as well as activities such as bon fire, choir competitions and talent show.

Learners were taken through issues of Gender Based Violence, mental and emotional health, HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, Setswana cultural values as well as challenges faced by children and how to navigate through the challenges.

The school head thanked stakeholders who made the boot camp successful, emphasising that collective effort was necessary to raise a child.

Ms Male also thanked her team of teachers for dedicating their time to the programme to ensure its success, without demanding payment.

However, she raised concern over 44 pupils who failed to attend the boot camp without explanation from the parents.

She encouraged parents to join hands with teachers in the education of their children and to instil discipline at home.

Chairperson of the steering committee Ms Mavis Morolong thanked teachers, learners, parents and stakeholders for coming on board to contribute to the betterment of the school.

She applauded support from parents who stepped in to contribute money and pledged food items during the pupils’ stay at school. ENDS