For most of her answer, the minister is spot on. Indeed learner performance is influenced by many factors, some of which the minister ably outlined. These include ineffective Parent-Teachers Associations (PTAs), lack of parental interest in the education of pupils, which in turn discourage the children; some children travel long distances to and from school; poor management of schools; low teacher morale due to "unfavourable conditions of service,". These are all true. However, we wish for the minister to go further than that. Children in most remote areas in Botswana - not just Kweneng - tend to perform dismally. It is our view that the minister should go beyond the problems that she has identified. For example, what is the percentage of children who walk long distances to and from school? What time do the children leave home? When do they reach school? And, when do they reach home after school? A cursory observation reveals that children can walk as many as 20km to and from school. Normally they reach school around tea-break - that is between 10 am and 11 am. At that time the children would have missed all of the morning lessons. Secondly, they are too tired to listen in class. In winter, they are frozen and nearly out of their little minds because of our terribly cold winters. Add the fact that the children are mostly barefooted and would have left home hungry and you understand why only a super-intelligent child would pass despite these odds.
In summer the children have to brave the scorching morning and afternoon sun. The fact that the children continue coming to school must be food for thought for the minister. Surely someone or something is encouraging the children to keep going to school. From the minister's response it is not the parents. At least mostly it is not. And what is the ministry doing to involve the parents in the education of their children - to help them appreciate why they need to be proactive about the education of their children. This question is especially necessary because the issue of poor performance in remote area schools has been there for many years. The minister faults poor management and disillusionment of teachers for their poor performance. It is important, however, that the minister should appreciate that for children to perform better, it not only takes the effort of the parents and teachers.
