Power cut raises fear of underperformance

ISAAC PINIELO
Correspondent | Tuesday October 26, 2010 00:00

 

There was no power supply at the school the whole of last week, after the generators that supply electricity were reported to be out of order.

This has brought discomfort to the teachers and students, possibly affecting the preparations of the examinationsThere were also fears that because the school has boarding facilities, the blackout may have disturbed the student's preparations for the examinations since they could not study in their dormitories at night. Evening studies were also halted for the whole week.

The inconvenience was not only limited to students.  The teachers, most of whom reside at the school, are also said to have been affected by the blackout.

'How can one perform to the best of their ability when they wake up in a house that has no electricity? Many of us here are now used to electricity and you can imagine what it is like when you go for days without it,' said the teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Deputy headman of Mosu village, Phillip Kopano said he is aware of the situation but noted that it had not affected the whole village since they do not get power from the school.

'This situation is only experienced at the school and not in the village, so I cannot tell how much effect it has had,' he said.

The headmaster of the school was not available to give a comment since the telephones at the school were not working due to the power cut.

However, the director (regional operations central) for Serowe Regional Secondary Education Office, Marcos Maedza confirmed that the school has been without electricity for the past week.

He explained that the power cut was due to the generators that were out of order due to the overwhelming demand for electricity at the school.

'This is a big school with boarding facilities. Right now there are about 150 students who will be writing the exams, and this could be just a quarter of the whole number of students at the school,' he noted.

He stated that the electricity situation has affected teachers and some students as it was an inconvenience to their lives. 'It is obvious that the teachers were affected by the situation. Most of them had to improvise so as to make up for the electricity cut,' he said.

Maedza however said they have not established any poor performance of students due to the blackout. 'If there is any poor performance, it would be because of other factors.

This blackout has only been there for one week and this is such a short time for us to establish any effects on the performance of students,' he indicated.

At the time of going to press, Maedza said they were working on the situation, pointing out that a new generator was being transported to the school from Gaborone.

'We understand that lack of electricity affects the school and as such we are doing our best to rectify the situation,' he quipped.