Kuzeeko Tjitemisa
Windhoek-Omaheke Regional Education Director, Pecka Semba, has expressed his disappointment for the umpteenth time on the pathetic performance of the region’s Grade 10 Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) learners.
Speaking to New Era yesterday, Semba said although an assessment is very difficult to make because a thorough analysis is needed, “the JSC results are very poor and embarrassing and nothing to be proud of”.
However, he said the Grade 12 Higher Level results are encouraging as far as Omaheke is concerned.
Semba said the biggest problem of the region’s JSC schools is the inconsistency in the performance of the schools.
“How would you explain a school that was first with a percentage higher than the national average suddenly dropping eight places and scoring, for example, 22 percent?” He questioned.
He said for a school like Rietquelle in the Otjombinde constituency to rise from bottom to position two is praiseworthy, but he was also searching for answers on whether they could sustain and maintain that performance.
Semba said the region’s percentage passes for all schools, including those that are ranked high at regional level, are so poor that they do not even come close to the national average, which is a grave cause for concern.
“No amount of excuses will justify such poor performance! We will collectively, as stakeholders, analyse these results as far as JSC is concerned and seriously work on remedial strategies for 2018,” he concluded.
A total of 37 441 full-time Grade 10 candidates registered for the national examinations in 2016, and 20 318 qualified for admission to Grade 11 in 2017.
The Minister of Education, Arts and Culture Katrina Hanse-Himarwa said the number of candidates qualifying for admission to Grade 11 in 2018 might increase to approximately 23 318, because part-time candidates build up subject credits over a couple of years and normally meet the admission requirements to Grade 11 only after a number of years.
On average, since 1993 the percentage of learners qualifying for admission to Grade 11 has increased steadily from 37.2 percent to 54.3 percent this year.