Arone's plea for Shakawe sensible
Mmegi Editor | Tuesday March 25, 2014 13:15
The result means that 85 out of the 650 students who sat for the examination qualify for tertiary education. It has never happened in the history of this country for a school to perform that badly. This should wake up even a sleeping goliath that something is wrong. It was not the first time the school made headlines. When the school opened, it was discovered that the contractors of the buildings had not used brick-force to strengthen the walls. Due to poor construction, the students were forced to stay at home for the first term of form four, before a decision was made for them to go and attend classes in Maun. But the move was not helpful as in Maun, the Shakawe group was treated like second-class students as hey had no access to classrooms, laboratories, and the library.
The Maun school was also closed at a later stage, and the students returned to Shakawe where they found an even worse situation – there were no laboratories, teachers and library. Venson-Moitoi, the minister of Education and Skills Development did not dispute all this.
It is therefore fitting that MP Arone should seek redress of the matter by asking that all failed students at the embattled school be given another chance. We therefore support Arone’s plea for the failed students to repeat their Form Five. What would a community like Shakawe do with 465 failures? And these, it can only be assumed, will be added to another long list of Junior Certificate and PLSE failed students who could not proceed to the next level.
The circumstances surrounding the Shakawe secondary school failure to perform to satisfaction was beyond their control, and all odds were stacked against them. It will therefore be human, compassionate, and reasonable that Venson-Moitoi make a decision and allow the students to go back to class. She has done it with the back to school programme, double shift and study groups to mention a few. The same government she is serving in has also come up with youth empowerment schemes as a way to uplift the livelihoods of the youth.
It is the mandate of government to avail all resources needed in a learning institution, but if such is not delivered then the blame should be placed upon those mandated to do so.
Okavango is one of the constituencies that are badly impoverished, and therefore denying these children an opportunity to learn would be like sentencing the community to a gloomy future.
This is an area still to recover from the cattle lung disease of the 1990s and the frequent outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease that has made it impossible to sell livestock. Armed with education, the Okavango people can graduate from poverty and uplift their lives.
Today’s thought
“A substandard education will always result in a substandard nation.”
– Aubrey Priest