10 Feb 2014

Nata Senior Secondary School faces challenges that have impacted negatively on the learning environment.

Speaking during a visit to the school by the Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural development, Ms Botlogile Tshireletso, the school head, Mr James Butale said they required manpower and resources to produce good results.

Mr Butale said teachers were overloaded because the teacher/student ratio stood at 1:45 in core subjects whereas optional subjects such as Agriculture the ratio was 1:25, therefore each teacher was teaching approximately 200 students a day.

He noted that the school had one teacher without the required academic qualification teaching chemistry. Teachers, he said, also needed to be capacitated on item writing, moderation of course work and BGCSE marking.

Mr Butale said there was need to have a school clinic, back-up generators, refrigerators to keep foodstuff as the school was far from suppliers.  Furthermore, Mr Butale said the school was in an area of a saline water supply, which hads proved to be destructive to everything it comes into contact with.

He said the pipes that conveyed water to the school got blocked within a relatively short period; plumbing works in staff houses and elsewhere in the school get damaged.

Mr Butale said the water storage tanks got corroded leading to leakages, geysers stop working and the agriculture department of the school has to contend with plants not doing well due to the water situation.

The school head said the design and technology department of the school had been without the necessary requisite equipment since the school was opened in 2011. He noted that the issue had now become a barrier to a noble intention designed to run the department and the school in general.

Other issues covered included shortage of stoves and gas supplies for staff members, absence of rain water catchment tanks, delays in landscaping, bad state of the school playgrounds, shortage of official vehicles and delays in the installation of printer and computer in Art department.

He said although the school did not perform well academically, it got position 28 out of 31 schools, they would work hard to improve.

The school head said the school library has no sufficient material as most of the donated books are old and have been weeded from the shelves by schools and BNLS because they were no longer up to date.

Mr Butale appealed to the Ministry of Education to speed up the process of stocking newly constructed libraries with the necessary stock and also urged the school to link with the government internet.

Ms Tshireletso appreciated all issues raised, saying her visit was a presidential assignment to get an overview  of the facilities current status  and how they impacted on the learning environment.

Ms Tshireletso said recommendations would be made on all facts gathered and presented to the relevant authorities. ENDS