Unlearnt lessons in JCE exam disgrace
Baboki Kayawe | Friday January 27, 2017 15:54
The nation is once again in tears; a dirge over the recently released 2016 Junior Certificate Examinations (JCE) results is ongoing. The results point to a slight drop in students who obtained grade C or better by 0.87 percent from 33.41% in 2015, to 32.54% in 2016.
“Effectively, the results mean that only 32.54% of the total 41,938 students who sat for the final JCE last year, obtained grades C, B and A, while the remaining 67.56% obtained grades D, E with some ungraded,” Tobokani Rari sums up.
He is the secretary general of the teacher labour movement, Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU).
Possible causative factors for this state of affairs include unsatisfactory school management, poor preparation of students for secondary schooling, an unhealthy environment for learners and teachers, shortage of resources, and a disconnect between desired outcomes and practice on the ground. Analysts complain that the government vision is not clear enough for educators to execute efficiently and teachers’ unions have been vocal about centralised education management and large class sizes inter alia.
As it has been the case throughout the years, the results showcase devastating disparities between schools in rural and urban areas. The top 10 schools, as has become tradition are from Gaborone, Francistown, Orapa, Jwaneng and Selebi Phikwe. The bottom 10 schools are predominantly schools from rural areas such as Kang, Gowa in the Okavango region, Pitsane and Kgalagadi among others.
Even the blind can see the reality unfolding between rural and urban schools. In fact, Rari weaves it well when he says: “This in our view is indicative of the skewed resources distribution between schools in towns and rural areas.”
Botswana is among the top 10 most unequal countries in the world.
UNICEF country representative, Julianna Lindsey, speaking recently at the launch of a shoe donation charity named Every Child Has A Dream Foundation, recommended that, to make a difference, the country must deal with its startling inequalities.
“I particularly want to congratulate you for recognising, through your focus on children who don’t have shoes to attend school that in the midst of the sparkling diamond wealth of Botswana, great inequalities remain,” Lindsey said.
In some instances, Lindsey explained, poverty is perpetuated by birthplace, gender and family circumstances, and children from the poorest households are nearly twice as likely as their wealthiest counterparts to die before age five. Girls from the poorest families are also more likely to marry before they reach 18.
A child bride is unlikely to complete her secondary education, which entrenches her in poverty and limits her future and employment prospects, along with those of her children.
Moreover, Lindsey elaborated, disparities between children in rural and urban areas in Botswana are significant. Malnutrition in Gantsi district, for instance, is 10% higher than the national level of 30%.
“A child deprived of adequate nutrition may never reach his or her full physical or cognitive potential, limiting their ability to learn and earn,” Lindsey said. “If we fail to address inequities such as these, we will continue to have districts with poor educational outcomes.”
It has become common cause now in public education for parents to fork out monies for stationery such as exercise books for instance, which in yesteryears were provided for by government. Worst still, shortages of recommended textbooks have become the norm in public schools such that learners share these reading materials. For years now, there has been a national outcry on shortage of textbooks that led to an audit by the then Ministry of Education and Skills Development whose findings among others was that the rate at which learners return textbooks after study completion was very low. Tendering and supply of these crucial learning materials has also been found wanting.
“A lot of schools and subjects suffered the shortage, which disabled individual students to have copies, or even have extended revision hours outside the classroom as recommended learning materials were shared,” unionist Solomon Batsietswe said in a previous interview.
Consequently, there is too much compromise when books are shared, and this is a huge factor perhaps if not the major one.
Dilapidated infrastructure in schools, resource limitations and general lack of facilities has a hand in this mess, educators have further noted. Huge class sizes, which have seen most public schools overflowing, coupled with lack of classrooms has sent learners under trees where diversified learning aids such as demonstrations through ICTs are impossible.
Contact time between teachers and learners is also limited with the advent of the New Public Service Act of 2010, which has cramped teaching into eight-hour jobs. Previously the Teaching Service Act, which did not stipulate hours of work, governed that teachers could be engaged for more than 10 hours. The new regime has seen teachers and government tussle over the issue of extracurricular activities such as remedial classes, sporting activities as well as participation in assorted clubs that enhance learning. After a stalemate, the two parties resorted to paying teachers’ overtime for the extra work, which has proved to be an exorbitant exercise.
Lately, education authorities have cautioned schools to be diligent in carrying out overtime work, as the funds have dried up. Back in 2013, the Ministry of Education contemplated reverting back to the initial schedule, as overtime dues were unbearable.
The ministry had paid P17 million in overtime between November 2012 and April 2013.
“We are now working with the DPSM to return to the initial system because as long as teachers are using the New Public Service Act, the Ministry will continue to incur huge costs,” permanent secretary, Grace Muzila told the Public Accounts Committee in 2013.
Long-standing matters of progression and transfers are also contributory factors as teachers’ morale is dampened. Disgruntled teachers in Gantsi Senior Secondary School recently penned a series of complaint letters regarding their overstay in the area, and how it is likely to affect their performances.
“It is becoming evident that overstaying in semi-arid, remote and underdeveloped areas is slowly but surely brewing discontentment, disgruntlement among teachers,” the teachers stated in a letter.
Insiders say most teachers are incompetent to deliver the changed syllabi at JC and primary school levels. With changes in the syllabi, the assessment system was also changed around 2012, with the intent of assessing the application and understanding of concepts against the objectives of the syllabi. Education experts say teachers were not drilled to execute the syllabi in accordance with the new scheme.
There is a rot in education management too. A teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity told Mmegi this week, “they are no longer following establishment registers about the number of teachers per school, temporary teachers take long to be remunerated, teachers on confinement leave are not replaced, and if it happens, it is not timely; so students spend a lot of time loitering,”
This week, however, education minister Dr Unity Dow said: “Resources, unsatisfactory remuneration and conditions of work will always be a factor in any economy, may it be first world or developing as ours. It is, however, not a good excuse for us not to exert ourselves collectively and fully to educate our children”.
Seemingly oblivious of the issues or perhaps searching for collective solutions, Dow further posed a rhetoric question in her statement to media.
“Has automatic progression had an impact in that pupils proceed to the next stage before having mastered the one they are currently in?”
Working in tandem with the universal access to education policy has been automatic progression, which has ensured that learners pass seamlessly through the 10 years of education offered under the universal policy. In other words, each learner is guaranteed 10 years of education regardless of performance at critical levels such as Standard 7.
In recent years, when JC results have been particularly poor, education authorities have given poor performers a waiver into senior secondary.
In fact, a good case in point is the Form 5 class of 2014, which recorded a dismal performance. This group had benefited from this promotion as the Education Ministry automatically transitioned some of the learners in 2013, despite appalling performances at junior certificate level.
At the time, commentators said the decision was based on unprecedented poor 2012 JC results and the need for higher secondary enrolment as espoused under the Revised National Policy on Education.
Teachers argue that this transition has led to this cohort of students finding life tough at the next level, as they are not academically mature to transition to the next stage. And this is how learners are poorly prepared secondary schooling.
Perhaps in synch with school management, is the issue of culture in learning institutions. Honestly, there are certain schools where the set of norms, values and beliefs, rituals and the general way of doing things are toxic.
As such, mediocrity has become the custom as opposed to environments where the culture is positive hence meaningful teaching and learning is enabled. So many factors have eroded the positive culture in schools, and just like the declining school results, no one can resort them single-handedly.
Minister Dow on Monday reckoned a tracer study of the candidates’ progress from primary school for instance could help understand if pupils improve or become poorer as they transit from primary to secondary.
What absolutely stood out in her speech is the plea for transformation of mindsets.
“We can rely on research and figures, but it will be the change in our attitudes positively that will eventually see us attain the goals that we will to achieve,” she said.
Profound, let the policy makers give an ear to education experts’ diagnosis of the system. Teachers need to introspect and find new ways of delivery as times and generations have evolved. Basically each stakeholder needs to fine-tune his or her attitude and be a torch bearer.