BGCSE pass rate declines

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Wednesday February 17, 2010 00:00

The Botswana Government Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) results released last Thursday, show a decline of 1.98 percentage in the pass rate.

While there are many students who passed with flying colors registering eight A stars and one A there are others who failed dismally. 'How can a student register an F and Gs like this? There are just so many students who have been awarded grades lower than E and I wonder what percentage they got to get that mark,' asked one parent who was viewing the students' results online last week.

Mmegi asked two headmasters in Gaborone about the challenges faced by form five students that could lead to such dismal results.  'Most of them do not understand why there are in school in the first place.  We spend more time dealing with issues of discipline than concentrating on the core business, which is academic,' the school head of Ledumang Senior School Molosiwa Ntsiane said. 

He explained that the indiscipline issues include students not doing their homework, dodging classes and using drugs in school, which was a serious and worrying matter in almost all the schools.  He explained that it is only towards the end of the second semester that students want to be serious with their studies, which is already too late as examinations are written in mid third term. 'School is no longer something motivating for most students, but those who are serious and very focused in their education pass without any problems,' he said.

He explained that students are very undisciplined and it is very difficult to get them to focus on their schoolwork if they do not even want to listen and take instructions from their teachers.

He revealed that other things that derail the students from their studies include engaging in endless entertainment where they abuse alcohol and drugs, which has infiltrated almost all schools around the country. 'They do not smoke marijuana but eat it.  It is not a school issue anymore but the whole community should stand up and do something against drug abuse in schools,' he said, explaining that cellphones are a minor problem compared to drugs. 'Some students realise that they have to be disciplined in school and regard it as torture and rebel, thereafter they get bad results at the end of their school term,' Ntsiane said.

'We have reached a stage where we no longer suspend students for abusing drugs but have appealed to them to come out if they think they have a problem so that we involve the parents, social workers and psychiatrists. We realised that if we suspend them we are not solving the issue because it will be like giving them more time for drugs,' he said. However, Mosimanegape Mophuthing of Gaborone Senior School said the parents, teachers and the students should all take the blame for poor performances just like they would take credit for good results. 'If the students are not serious about their school work we must come together with the parents and correct the mistake.

We cannot blame the students alone for abusing the drugs without asking ourselves where they get the money to buy the drugs or the cellphones which are distracting them in classes,' Mophuting said.  He explained that drugs are not a new phenomenon in schools and something needs to be done to make sure that they are eliminated from school grounds. 'The schools must engage the student leadership because sometimes peer education is better than when we as adults talk to them,' he said.