St Joseph's student tops BGCSE exams

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Friday March 25, 2011 00:00

She got nine A* and one B in English Language to narrowly emerge tops ahead of Seitshiro Ivan of Lobatse Secondary School. Ivan also had 64 points but with eight A* and a B in Accounting.

The other students who appear in the top five are Lemao Lopang with nine A* and one C, Gosenyang Basego with eight A* and two Bs both from St Joseph College. Mapoka Nthabiseng of Lobatse Secondary School scored eight A* and a D in English, Kagisano Manyemane got seven A*, one A and one B.

The summary of results from the Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) shows that once again, girls performed better in languages than boys.However, the girls were beaten by boys in Mathematics and Sciences. BEC said that looking at the number of candidates awarded five Cs or better, the performance of female candidates continues to improve compared to that of males, although the change between 2009 and 2010 is insignificant.

BEC stated that there was a decline in candidature across all subjects except Physical Education that was offered in 17 more centres. BEC said in summary that there was an increase in performance in grade C and above in Sciences, Mathematics, Development Studies, Geography, Social Studies, Accounting and Business Studies.

However, performance declined in double award Sciences, English, Setswana, Human and Social Biology, History, Art and Design, Commerce, Agriculture, Fashion and Fabrics, Home Management, Food and Nutrition and Physical Education.

In a vox pop conducted in Gaborone many people said the results are not credible after the stand-off  between BEC, the teachers' unions and the Ministry of Education over the invigilation of the exams. 'It is like they just wanted to get them (results) out. I checked many schools and most students performed very badly in English.

My colleague's daughter was a very brilliant student and has got a total of 36 points. She is devastated. She is seeking a remarking of her scripts,' said 33-year-old Malebogo Tlhong. She wondered how many students could be doubting the grades they got. 'How many would be able to afford to pay for remarking of scripts?' she asked.

Gaba Ndoda said there is too much doubt about how the course work marks were compiled. 'I understand most of the subjects with practicals had failures and I wonder if the course work marks were added or not. But we will never know and BEC and MoE's misunderstanding with the teachers contributed to that,' Ndoda said.

'The environment which examinations were written had a bearing on the outcome of the results. It was not a conducive environment and all concerned stakeholders I am sure have learnt from their mistakes for the betterment of the future students,' said Benson Phuthego.