Moipisi blames poor results on lawlessness of students

Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Friday March 3, 2017 15:30

In recent years, the country has witnessed a sharp decline in the results of students after seating for Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE), Junior Certificate (JC) and Botswana General Certificate for Secondary Education (BGCSE).  The trend in PSLE, and BGCSE results has not been different in that the percentage of students who are awarded grade C or better has been way below 50%.  Ironically, while the performance of students has been dropping, the expenditure of the education ministry has increased annually.

The Member of Parliament for Kgalagadi North, Itumeleng Moipisi has blamed this on the students’ lack of discipline and use of drugs.

Moipisi, who was commenting on the Committee Supply for the Ministry of Basic Education, said that student performance, especially Kgalagadi in the region, has been appalling.  He said that the situation seems to be worsening every year. “The performance of students in Kgalagadi region, especially my area is dismal. But this is because students have no discipline.  They indulge in alcohol abuse and take drugs.  This has to be stopped,” he said.

He said the use of drugs has bred lawlessness in schools, especially in secondary level.  The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) legislator, also assistant minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services said that unless permission is given to senior teachers and heads of Department to cane and discipline students, the situation will not improve.

“This lawlessness has affected learning in schools. Senior teachers and HoDs should be allowed to discipline the students.”

While the decline in performance of students has been a national concern, places in farflung and remote areas as such as Kgalagadi have been hard hit.

However, in her presentation, the minister of Basic Education, Unity Dow indicated that the performance of students has been improving.

“Madam chairperson, the PSLE results continue to show a steady increase in the number of candidates attaining grades A to C.  The results reflect an increase of 0.8 percent, from 69.16% in 2015 to 70.5% in 2016.  “At Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination (JCE) results continue to stabilise with the number of candidates awarded grade C and better being 34.6% in 2014, 33.4% in 2015 and 32% in 2016,” Dow said.

She said that the BGCSE results have over the recent years registered an improvement in performance. In 2015 BGCSE registered an increase by 1.3 percent of learners obtaining 5C’s or better compared to 2014 results, which realised an improvement in the overall pass rate from 23.27% to 24.54%.  Dow added that in 2016, a further improvement by 0.92 percent over the 2015 results was registered.

However, she said that more interventions such as pastoral, remediation classes for subject teachers and equitable distribution of resources are necessary to improve the performance of the students.

She proposed a budget of P7,646,490,203 of which P6,801,546,190 is for Recurrent Budget while P844, 944,013 is for Development Budget.