Okavango MP Fights For Failed Shakawe Students

Gothataone Moeng | Monday March 24, 2014 12:10

 

Arone presented an urgent motion in Parliament on Friday requesting the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) to make special arrangements for the students to repeat after most of them failed.

With a 7.4 percent pass rate in the 2013 BGCSE exams, Shakawe SSS was the worst performer in the exams in a year that saw appalling results countrywide.

Out of 650 Shakawe students who sat the exams, only 85 are eligible for further education.

Arone argued that the factors that led to the failure at the school were beyond the control of students. Shakawe is one of the new schools built in recent years.

Although the school was scheduled to open its doors in 2012, this did not happen due to various factors like structural defects in the new buildings. As a result, the students spent what was meant to be their first term in Form Four at home. 

A contingency plan was made for the students to study at Maun SSS. Arone said this did not solve the problem, as there were no classrooms to accommodate the Shakawe students.  Nor were there sufficient specialised facilities, such as science and computer labs for use by Shakawe and Maun students.

To make matters worse, Maun SSS was closed after a fire incident.

Arone argued that even in 2013, when Shakawe SSS admitted students, it was ill equipped to accommodate learners.

“There was shortage of staff and the school did not have water.  Even as we speak right now, the library is empty; the D&T Labs have no equipment. 

I pray that the honourable members put themselves in the shoes of these students,” he told MPs on Friday.

Arone suggested that the repeating students be dispersed to different senior schools.

He said the situation in the school is worse, particularly with staffing. He said six teachers from the school were recently suspended on suspicion of having inappropriate sexual relations with students. 

Arone blamed the disastrous exam results on the Minister of Education, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi.

He said the minister made numerous promises to him and the Shakawe community that strategies would be put in place to make sure the students would be taught what they had missed.

“None of those strategies materialised,” Arone said. 

He was concerned that some of the students who failed passed well at Junior Certificate level.

Venson-Moitoi and her assistant, Patrick Masimolole, asked for an adjournment of the motion, saying they needed to gather more information on the case.

A number of MPs expressed their disappointment, saying that the adjournment defeats the urgency of the matter.

They said it was especially disappointing that Venson-Moitoi and Masimolole were not in Parliament when Arone first sought to present the motion two weeks ago. The motion is expected to be debated on Friday.