Africa-Press – Botswana. Twenty seven primary schools in Tutume district started implementing the language policy in education at the beginning of first term this year.
Speaking at the ongoing full council session, Tutume District Council chairperson, Mr Thatayaone Kehitile said
18 teachers from some of those 27 schools had attended an induction in Gaborone in January and cascaded what they learnt to other teachers.
Cllr Kehitile said mother tongue languages as medium of instruction were introduced in schools beginning this year, with the aim of helping pupils at lower primary level from reception to standard three understand concepts.
However, he regretted there had been some challenges such as shortage of teachers who can teach in those languages. Nonetheless, he said there were arrangement to transfer teachers with those capabilities to schools currently implementing the policy.
He implored fellow councillors to continue driving initiatives geared towards building a platform for a knowledge-based economy, adding in that regard more emphasis was placed on learner academic excellence, pushed together with values of outcome-based education and the education training sector strategic plan.
The chairperson also pointed out that the results indicated a decline in performance in Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) and a slight improve in Junior Certificate (JC) and Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE).
Some schools such as Manxotae, Semitwe, Lepashe and Gweta as well as Zoroga were not doing well and needed attention and support for a better academic turnaround, he said. Councillor Kehitile added that after the results were published, they conducted assessment and inspections at Lepashe primary school and Madau Junior Secondary School in an effort to facilitate the schools’ academic performance.
For his part, principal economist Ms Kelapile Mphotho said digitalisation had started in senior secondary schools in Nata and Tutume districts, while at Tutume McConnel Community College both teachers and students had been issued with tablets.
She added schools that were not doing well academically had to account for their poor results and say what strategies they were to use to improve the situation.
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