Striving for top position

Baboki Kayawe | Monday August 24, 2015 15:22

Celebrating a feat of moving up from 11th position in 2013 to third countrywide last year, the school at the bottom Kgale hill south of Gaborone, has declared academic war on the best performing junior secondary, Orapa CJSS. For many years now, the diamond town school has been topping the JCE results chart.  At Kgale JSS victory party held at Sedibeng Lodge Friday, stakeholders vowed it could take whatever time to displace the diamond privileged school, but the staff is thirsty to occupy the top seat.  As a result they have launched war, they have put all their arsenals in order for this good fight.  In 2013, Kgale JSS came position 11 in the Junior Certificate Examinations (JCE). This caused a major shake as stakeholders who were fed up by just attaining mediocre rankings in the JCE, intervened.  They vowed to make a drastic change, and under the able and transparent leadership of Solomon Setswe, they obtained position three in 2014.  Celebrating this achievement in style, where both the teaching staff, non-teaching staff, Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) was represented, they were propelled on by a motivational talk from Bethsheba Mbongwe of Botho University.    She reminded them that while pursuing excellence and being at the apex of JCE ranks, it is crucial to sacrifice and do more under the straining conditions that teachers operated in to offer an education that prepared learners for life.

Botho’s head of student research and community outreach applauded Kgale Hill JSS for the sterling teamwork that was even visible to a blind man at the function. However, she called upon all stakeholders to introspect and thoroughly assess the kind of education they wanted to give this generation of learners. While academic excellence is a good pursuit, Mbongwe repeatedly stressed that, that alone was not education enough.

“Is it the kind of education that just want to produce A*s, what kind of education are we offering to our learners, is it just meant to aid the transition from one level of education to the other?” she asked. She emphasised that holistic education, one that included character building, discipline and also that inculcates means of adaptation and survival in this volatile and ever evolving life.  “It is critical to give education that would build them to be responsible members of the society who could make informed decisions, gain knowledge as well as to enable them to adapt,” she said.  For this to be realised, Mbongwe noted that all players; parents, students, non-teaching and teaching staff must contribute towards the vision.

Most importantly, she said there is a need to know the kind of parents that the school is dealing with, as education does not only occur in the classroom.  To mitigate the challenge of resource inadequacy, she said collaborations with the especially the business community could go a long way in delivering this kind of education. However, she cautioned that the school evaluate and measure what it wants to achieve from partnerships rendered through initiatives such as government’s Adopt-A-School programme.

“In most instances the project has become more of a competition. I personally do not see value addition in Botho University paving the school assembly area. I would rather have Kgale Hill JSS enrolled in our leadership programme,” she said.  A Kgale Hill JSS alumnus, who was also the school’s 2014 top performer, Tumisang Bimbo, gave all stakeholders at the school a pat on the back for creating an enabling environment for meaningful learning to happen.  She recollected that the school achievement came about due to a collective commitment made to walk the path of excellence. Everyone, she said bought in that vision. She commended the school management for being exemplary and always available to offer assistance. 

“I was very much impressed by the kind of leadership exhibited by my former school head Mr Setswe, who was always at the school gate by 6:30 am, and he was always a father to all of us,”

Bimbo said.   She added that teachers were also encouraging, in addition to parental support, which she describes as paramount in the education acquisition journey. “Whenever I thought of failing I would think about what I will say to Mr Selwe and to my parents, and all my teachers for disappointing them,” said the eloquent student.