Windhoek
Learners being transferred to the next grade without passing, poor English proficiency, indiscipline and usage of cellphones at school are some of the reasons Khomas Tura High School has a poor learner performance record.
The school, which is situated in Khomasdal, is ranked among the worst performing schools in the country.
In the Khomas Region schools like David Bezuidenhout, Augustineum, A Shipena, Ella du Plessis are among the government schools also featuring in the worst performing category.
In the Grade 12 Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSC) ordinary results, Khomas Tura High School is at position 142 out of 172, while it is the second last worst performing school following Eldorado Secondary School in Khomas.
Last year, the school had 116 learners in Grade 10 but only 37 proceeded to Grade 11 this year.
The head of department of commerce at the school, Salwa Khedr, said there has been an improvement in Grade 10 results as they had a 25 percent pass rate in 2014 while it moved up to 31.9 percent in 2015.
This year the school aims for a 60 percent pass rate in Grade 10. To improve the results Khedr indicated the school has a plan of action, which they implemented last year. This includes extra classes, afternoon classes, classes on Saturdays and afternoon study sessions. In the second term Grade 10 and 12 learners also attend regional school holiday classes.
In Grade 12, the school had 26 pupils but only six qualified for tertiary admission. According to symbol allocation no pupil in Grade 12 at the school scored an A plus or A. There are five B symbols and 21 D’s, while there are 43 E’s.
Khedr explained that the biggest challenge facing the school is learners being transferred from one grade to the next without passing.
She said the school has learners in Grade 8 who were transferred from Grade 7, adding that the promotional system states that if the learner fails twice per grade they have to be transferred to an upper grade.
“It reaches a point where they have to be blocked,” she said.
Other challenges faced by the school are poor English proficiency and indiscipline. “Misuse of technology by learners, cellphone usage at school and very low parental involvement as well.”
Learners are told not to come to school with cellphones but if they do they should be off and only turned on after school. But Khedr said learners are not adhering to this rule.
“We will have a disciplinary meeting with parents to inform them about usage of cellphones – that they should not be brought to school because they divert learners’ attention from their school work to other activities,” she remarked.
About parental involvement, Khedr said some of the parents just drop the learners at school and vanish. “They don’t attend parent meetings where we discuss critical issues and take decisions concerning learners. We are trying by all ways and means to have parents involved – we call them, invite them for certain meetings and write letters to them.”
The head of department for social science Mabuta Martin added that they already had a meeting with parents of learners in Grade 8 and told them that it is a culture that parents don’t turn up for meetings but informed them that attending such meetings is part of their contribution to their children’s education since they no longer pay school fees – all they have to do is involve themselves.
Although the school has a full establishment of teachers, Martin said that somehow teachers come and go like in the case of the history teachers last year.
This, he said, deprived learners in that area. “Because of the shortage of teachers we try to fill in the gaps where necessary but you know sometimes we have (teacher) scarcity and end up appointing not necessarily teachers but people with a specialization in certain fields,” said Martin.
Khedr said to improve the learning environment the school also introduced extramural activities and physical education and opened the school library since last year.
Computer science is now on the timetable and just waiting for the appointment of a teacher.
Martin said the school will have a quiz competition, invite motivational speakers and spend more time on tasks to help motivate learners.
Asked about the general position of the school being among the worst performing, Martin said there is a blame game among teachers and learners but learners accept that they failed but somehow want to shift the blame.
“But they are not happy – no one is happy. It’s a shame to the teachers and learners alike.”