Form 5 results show slight improvement
Baboki Kayawe | Tuesday February 21, 2017 15:06
A total 6,368 learners (25. 5%) candidates from both Government and Government aided schools were awarded grade C or better compared to 6,291 (24. 5%) in 2015. The Minister of Basic Education, Unity Dow who welcomed the improvement, presented the results yesterday.
“Any improvement is better than zero. While there is still a lot of work to be done, I won’t say I am limping with excitement, but the slight improvement is something,” Dow said. St Joseph’s College tops the results with a significant nine percent improvement from 51.2% in 2015, to 60.9% in 2016.
The school also produced the best candidate who obtained nine A*s and an A. Shoshong Senior Secondary School is the least performer with 12.7% of candidates awarded grade C or better relative to 17% in 2015.
Meanwhile, Dow has said though the current policy promotes automatic progression to the next level, ideally a child should progress when they have grasped content. She said when the child fails, remedial and tutorials must be given to enable thorough comprehension.
“However, due to pressure in the classroom, limited resources and many other challenges we are facing, we are promoting access but compromising at the same time. We want to allow for repeats,” she said.
A total 35,465 candidates wrote the 2016 Botswana General Certificate for Secondary Education (BGSCE) showing a decrease in candidature of 8.6% compared to 2015 cohort of 38,796.