Muzii
The principal of Muzii Combined School in the eastern flood plains of Zambezi Region, Christopher Ndeleki, has blamed some parents for the poor performance of learners at his school.
Ndeleki was speaking at a meeting of learners, teachers, schoolboard members and parents to mark the official opening of 2016 academic year at the school in the flood-prone area. He stressed that most parents do not attend meetings when they are called and as a result, are not aware of the challenges encountered by teachers regarding their children.
He emphasised that educating a child is a shared responsibility between teachers and parents. “I’m very disappointed with most of the parents. It is our first meeting of the year, but only a few parents are here. Where are the other parents?” he asked. “If you count the number of parents who are here, compared to the number of students we have, there is a big difference. Where are the parents of some of these learners?”
Ndeleki went on to stress that he is not happy with the performance of learners at the school. While there was a slight improvement from the Grade 10’s, compared to the previous years – as about 66 percent were promoted to Grade 11 – there was a noteable decline in the results of learners in the lower grades.
The pass rate of most of the grades at the school is cause for concern, as it was below 50 percent.
“I can point out a few grades where only about 30 percent made it to the next grade,” Ndeleki said. “We normally put our focus on improving the results of the Grade 10’s, while turning a blind eye on the results of other grades,” he further noted, and pointed to absenteeism, love affairs at school, and alcohol and drug abuse as some of the factors that contributed to the poor performance of learners. Principal Ndeleki then called on parents to work with the teachers to help improve the results.
He noted that learners are performing poorly in mathematics and English. “Our learners are performing poorly in English and this year we will be very committed to resolving that [problem],” he pledged.
“We’ve already set up rules and regulations, which you (parents) have signed and learners have also signed. We will also introduce learner-centred [teaching] so that learners are able to read and understand English by themselves. This is because we have noticed that learners do not understand English at all – as a result they fail to understand questions during examinations,” Ndeleki explained.
At the same meeting Bukalo circuit inspector Dai Limbo called on parents to work with the teachers to improve academic results: “It is your right as parents to demand from these teachers to work, as they are not here by chance, but they are here because of your children.”
He encouraged learners to start studying as early as possible and not to wait until the examinations are around the corner. “If you want to do well, the time to start studying is now. Don’t wait until the last minute,” Limbo advised.