Africa-Press – Botswana. North West councillors have vowed to join forces with schools in their respective areas in a bid to encourage good academic performance.
Poor academic performance in the district, they said required collective efforts to turn things around.
They said this during a full council session in Maun Friday.
Councillors noted that good working relations between village leadership, school management and other stakeholders was vital for schools to perform better.
The councillors appreciated schools which performed exceptionally well in the district.
Sankoyo Primary School attained 92 per cent overall pass rate in last year’s Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) beating all schools in North West region while Maitlamo Junior Secondary School in Maun scored 50 per cent pass rate.
Sankoyo School was acknowledged for its academic excellence despite being in a small village as the school did even better than their urban counterparts.
Councillors said the school management, teachers and parents had defied the odds and be achieving thetarget. This, the councillors said was due to as hard work and determination by both parents and teachers.
Councilor Kenson Kgage of Boro/Sennonori ward, said Sankoyo school did well in the previous year as it attained 100 per cent pass rate.
He appreciated that the school had created an environment conducive for children and the community to excel adding that teachers were enjoying a great support from parents and village leadership.
Specially elected councilor, Mr Bareetsi Bogaisang recognised teachers’ efforts and called on parents to work closely with teachers for their children’s education.
He also urged teachers to strive for quality adding that they should produce A’s and Bs and he pledged a goat to the Sankoyo school noting that their achievement needed to be celebrated.
Kareng/ Sehithwa ward councilor, Mr Petrus Tjetjoo concurred that Sankoyo’s achievement needed to be celebrated and encouraged teachers to continue rising the bar high.
He wished other schools could visit Sankoyo and benchmarked on their best learning and teaching models and practices saying they could help in improving results.
On other issues, councillors appreciated the construction of Boro two-teacher school where it offers only standard one and two classes. They also acknowledged the construction of a fully-fledged primary school at Senonnori ward in Maun. They said children would no longer travel long distances to access education and commended the council leadership for responding positively to the community’s concerns and needs.
“Finally children from Boro settlement will no longer travel 18km to access education at nearby schools and I thank council leadership for listening to the community’s plea,” said councilor Kenson Kgage of Boro/Senonnori ward.
The satellite school at Boro, he said was a welcome development as pupils lives were in danger for they had to travel through a bush infested with dangerous wildlife animals such as elephants and buffalos to access education at Matlapana Primary school in Maun.
In his speech, the council chairman, Mr Kebareeditse Ntsogotlho noted that the tender for Senonnori teachers’ quarters was floating and would be closed on March 30, 2023 while the tender for academic facilities would be closed on April 27, 2023.
For Boro satellite school, he said the project started on February 6, 2023 and was anticipated to be completed on May 24, 2023 adding that currently, the project was at trench excavation stage.
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