FRANCISTOWN: Mater Spei College (MSC) school head, Baboloki Bajiti has credited the Roman Catholic Church for their good performance in the 2024 Botswana General Certificate Secondary Education (BGCSE) results.
MSC scooped position two nationally and was number one regionally in the 2024 BGCSE results. In his remarks during a victory celebration, Bajiti said that the Roman Catholic Church had an influence in their outstanding performance. He further said that MSC belongs to the Roman Catholic Church and prayer is at the centre of everything that they do. "Everything we do, we pray for it. When the students are admitted at MSC we have a mass and when they are about to write their Form Five final examination we pray for them so that they can excel in their exams," he added. Bajiti said that another contributing factor for their achievement is that the students are well-disciplined and focused on their studies through the support of their parents, teaching and non-teaching staff. Speaking about their victory, he said that as a school of excellence they are ensuring excellence by working by set standards. He further stated that as a school their performance is marked by the percentage of the number of six credits or better. Bajiti indicated that they have set a target of attaining 60% and at least have about six top achievers annually. Additionally, he said that the transition rate is set to be around 45% measured by the number of students who got 36 points or more. He added that their motto is that they want every child to succeed. Speaking about MSC's performance over the last five years he said that in 2020,the school attained 27.77% with a candidature of 822 students and about 228 students managed to get 36 points. "We got position seven nationally and two regionally for the same year," he said.
He stated that in 2021 they attained 27.86% with 875 candidature of which 240 students managed to get six credits or better. "We got position five nationally and two regionally. In 2022, we had 36.9% with 909 students," he added. He said that during the same year 236 students managed to get six credits or better and got position seven nationally and three regionally. He also said that in 2023 they attained 39.6% with 890 students as their candidates of which 237 students attained 36 points or more. Bajiti stated that they were position number five nationally and two regionally. He was over the moon about the 2024 results which they were celebrating and they got 38.65% which a candidature of 935 students. He said that they managed to have four top achievers in 2024 and 22 students managed to get 48 points. Bajiti also said that 358 students managed to get six credits or better. He said that some of the departments that performed well include Religious Education which scooped position one nationally, Social Students landing position two, and Home Management at position three. Speaking of the cumulative number of credits, Bajiti said that for A*s they had 176, Shashe River School came out with 94 A*s , St Joseph's had 88 A*s, and Masunga Senior School with 67 A*s. MSC school head also indicated that in terms of As they had 322 as compared to Shashe River's 265, St Joseph's 229, whilst Masunga had 210.
He added that MSC managed to have 1,010 Bs followed by Shashe River with 924 Bs, St Josephs' with 965, and Masunga Senior with 822. In terms of Cs, he stated that MSC had 1,807 Cs, Shashe River came out with at least 1,682, St Joseph's with 1,649, and Masunga Senior with 1,367. He also spoke about another achievement of 46 teachers coming out with 134 candidates who managed to meet the 60% target in the Science Double Award and above 90% in the Triple Science Award classes. Bajiti indicated that 80 teachers managed to have one to four A*s whereas three teachers managed to get more than 10 A*s . He mentioned that some of the outstanding teachers included Religious Education teacher Keitumetse Sefaya who met the target and produced 100% pass rate for her class. He stated that the remarkable teacher managed to get 15 A*s in one class.