KEETMANSHOOP - The //Kharas acting Director of Education, Arts and Culture Jesmine Magerman says the region is well-equipped in terms of classrooms ahead of the reopening of schools across the country today.
While urging parents to register their children for school, Magerman assured them that the ministry had constructed 13 new classrooms across the region as part of the emergency provision of classrooms, and this will enable the directorate to address the placement of children at schools.
She told Nampa on Friday the directorate had procured exercise books, with at least one exercise book per subject per pupil for all the learners.
“These books will be delivered to schools by tomorrow. We also received maize-meal blend for the school-feeding programme, and are in the process of delivering it to the schools so that children who take part in this programme can be sure that a bowl of porridge will be available as from today at most schools,” she noted.
Magerman urged parents to assist and support schools in the education of their children by making school management, boards and teachers stronger.
She warned that ill-disciplined children can easily disrupt the teaching and learning process at schools, depriving other learners of the opportunity to learn. “We urge learners to focus on their schoolwork, to work hard and be dedicated to themselves and their future by being present at school, doing homework, studying for tests and examinations, doing continuous assessment tasks, and adhering to due dates. In the end, you will reap the fruits of this commitment and dedication,” Magerman reasoned.
The //Kharas region has 17 schools.
Only 30% qualify for AS level
Meanwhile, only 30% of the pupils who sat for the Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary (NSSCO) exams in the //Kharas region acquired three C+ gradings to advance to the Advanced Subsidiary (AS) level. About 1 166 candidates sat for the NSSCO examination, with only 350 qualifying for the AS level admission, should they be interested, while 134 candidates wrote the AS examinations.
Said Magerman: “I want to congratulate all the pupils who did well, and their dedicated teachers for their hard work. Every year, we enrol new pupils in Grade 11 and for AS level, learners with different expectations for themselves, and who have different levels of self-motivation and dedication to achieve success. Therefore, our results will differ from one year to another”.
The region’s ranking dropped from second place in 2022 to third place in 2023 for the NSSCO results.
“Despite the drop in rankings, the results, if compared to those of 2022, show our schools improved overall from 32% to 37% for C+ grading. There was also improvement in results for geography, accounting, economics, with entrepreneurship being regarded as the best improvement from 33% to 61% for C+ symbols obtained,” she noted.
There was a drop in performance in history, while the major area of concern remains mathematics, although there was an improvement from 7% to 14% C+ grades obtained, she added.
The acting director said later this month, they will hold a consultative meeting with principals, teachers and other stakeholders, where the 2023 results from Grade 4 to AS level will be scrutinised to develop an annual plan to improve outcomes.
“The interventions proposed by the principals should be practical and achievable to ensure it impacts on the learners’ performances. The implementation of the plan should be monitored throughout the year, and interventions which were successful in 2023 will be built upon,” she added.
Magerman said one of the challenges faced by the region is the lack of senior education officers for subjects such as social sciences, geography, history, development studies and all commerce subjects.
However, plans to address this issue are underway, she added. - Nampa