26 Feb 2014

The management of Letlhakane Primary School has resolved to introduce weekend classes for standard seven students so as to improve performance, the head teacher, Mr Jacob Tshipo, said in an interview on February 25.

Mr Tshipo said the decision to engage the standard seven students on weekends was taken at a Parents and Teachers Association meeting recently. He said the introduction of weekend classes was expected to improve the school’s performance, which had been declining over the years.

He said the school’s last good performance was in 2008 when it obtained a 93.4 per cent pass rate. Standard seven results had been going down since then to reach 63 per cent pass rate last year.

Weekend classes started last weekend, although some parents complained that their children missed church. The headteacher said the complaining parents could be those who failed to attend the February meeting where it was agreed that the intiative was the way to go.

He underscored the fact that children’s education required the tripartite partnership of students, parents and teachers where each partner had a role to play towards producing the desired results.

Mr Tshipo said although the focus was on standard seven students, extra care would be given to standard four because their performance had a major impact on the academic standing of the school.

He added that teachers had a lot of work because they did not have support staff such as messengers and typists, and this was one of the factors that caused low morale.

Ms Mogi Supang, the deputy head teacher, said the school depended on development fees to finance prize-giving ceremonies, sports activities and even to buy photocopying papers for the school. Therefore, she said, it was shocking that 200 students failed to pay the annual development fee of P35.

Ms Supang said the drop-out rate was not bad at Letlhakane Primary School. Last year, only three students dropped out because of illness but one of them returned. Other schools lose more than 10 students per year, he said. ENDS