When the parents of the 41 students questioned the school they discovered that the application forms for placement were not submitted to the relevant education offices by the school authorities.

After the current school head Jeff Ncube put the blame on different regional education officials, it was discovered that his predecessor had failed to submit the application forms. After the students failed to receive admission letters for form one at junior secondary schools the parents visited the secondary school department in Gaborone to enquire about the situation and were given the bad news. "Officials dealing with placements realized the omission while trying to place the students in different schools. The principal education officers for primary department in Molepolole told us that he never received the application letters," the Chief Education Officer for the secondary department in the South Central Region, Albert Legwaila said.

He explained that when he investigated the matter it became apparent that the students' application letters were never submitted to the relevant offices. "I talked to the current school head and he told me that the outgoing head is the one who failed to submit the forms," Legwaila stated.

He told the parents not to panic, as this would not disadvantage the students in anyway. He said they would be placed in junior secondary schools of their choice, "but it will give us problems in the sense that we will be going back to the exercise that we had completed". Legwaila appealed to parents to come to his office so that their children could be helped.

When contacted by Mmegi, the school head Ncube explained how surprised three weeks ago when they learned that the application letters were not availed to the relevant authorities. He explained that parents called their offices when they learnt that other students who were studying in other schools had been admitted. He said they made follow-ups with the regional education authorities in Molepolole before proceeding to the secondary department in Gaborone to no avail. "We have no idea what happened, but somehow between the regional offices here and in Gaborone someone must have misplaced them. We have however resolved that parents should come and reapply so that we take the forms to the relevant offices urgently," Ncube said.

About 41 students from Meadows English Medium Primary School, in Molepolole found themselves in the lurch recently when they realized that they have not been admitted at junior secondary schools despite the fact that they had passed.