Lesotho Political Unrests Dashes Bonwatlou Students� Dreams
Onalenna Kelebeile | Monday September 18, 2017 16:04
The trip was cancelled immediately after the Lesotho army commander Khoantle Mots’omots’o was shot dead and students were already in Gaborone where they were supposed to catch a flight the next morning.
The shooting of Mots’omots’o early this month followed the death of the wife of Lesotho Prime Minister, Tom Thabane who was shot dead a day before Thabane’s inauguration in June.
Despite the not so impressive academic performance, Bonwatlou Secondary School has students who are performing extremely well nationally.
One of its students has also qualified for the Science Olympiad that will be held in Netherlands in December.
The school head, Shepard Majoko said during the school’s silver jubilee celebrations on Friday that they received a correspondence just when the students were about to leave for Lesotho that the trip was cancelled due to the political instability in that country.
“We are currently awaiting the ministry to inform us on the next move because there had been plans to move the fair to either Swaziland or Botswana,” he said. The students got position one in the national fair to book their tickets to Lesotho.
The school enrols students from villages like Gojwane, Moreomabele, Topisi, Damuchujenaa, Serule and Foley.
Its academic performance according to the school head, has been fluctuating over the years and indicated that from 2010 to date the Botswana Examination Council changed the assessment to improve the quality.
In 2014 the school achieved only 19% ABC pass rate, in 2015 it got only 29% while last year Bonwatlou attained 28% ABC pass rate. Majoko said despite this the school has produced men and women who are contributing immensely in the economic development of the country and said they continue to produce students who will continue to contribute to the development of different economic sectors of the country.
Majoko said four students from his school got six awards from Tonota Sub Region excellence awards and even produced an overall best student.
They got awards in Setswana, English and Science. “This was the best achievement because the school dominated in the students’ awards against six schools in the sub region.
Our students are also performing well in extra curricular activities as they always reach national finals in athletics and our ladies softball teams reached national finals in 2013 and 2015,” he said.
The school head called on parents to work hand in hand with teachers to help students focus on education.
He acknowledged challenges of indiscipline and drug abuse and implored all stakeholders to play their part to improve the declining academic results.
He appealed to Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) to adopt the school. He said this could be done even through pledging sponsorship for some subjects.
“Our school is isolated and does not have access to modern technology to enhance learning.
I therefore request that BIUST adopts our school by connecting Wi-Fi so that teachers and students can research to improve our results,” he added.
BIUST acting director of research, Mmoloki Mangwala said he was aware that the school achieved 83% pass rate once in 25 years and said they will see if they can engage new mechanisms to restore the school to good results.
He encouraged the school to work on its achievements to reach greater heights and promised that they will award students who perform exceptionally well to qualify for international competitions.