OVERCROWDED classrooms, a shortage of textbooks and poor relationships between teachers and pupils were identified as some of the factors that contributed to last year’s poor Grade 10 results.
This was the outcome of a meeting on Friday between officials of the Khomas regional education office and the management of the least successful schools in the 2009 JSC examinations. The Director of Education in the Khomas Region, Josia Udjombala, said quality teaching remained elusive in many schools. He said it was clear that management and teaching alike had to be strengthened at these schools.The 18 schools with the worst Grade 10 results had a total of 3 232 pupils sitting for the exams, with only 1 022 making it to Grade 11.These schools include Dawid Bezuidenhout, Eldorado Secondary, Cosmos High, Rocky Crest High, Immanuel Shifidi Secondary, Augustineum Secondary, Pionier Boys and Ella Du Plessis Secondary. ‘The rest, which is 2 210 candidates, have fallen through the cracks. I believe you will agree with me that the learners who went through these schools have been cheated. They have been robbed of their enrichment and empowerment that comes with good education, which is always a result of quality and effective teaching in the classroom. They have been condemned for life,’ Udjombala said. In their defence, the principals of some of the poorest-performing schools cited a lack of commitment on the part of pupils as one of the many factors that had contributed to the low pass rates.’We are faced with the problem of overcrowding. We are accommodating between 40 and 45 students per classroom, which results in poor concentration. The other factor is that students come late to school or are absent, often due to a lack of parental support at home,’ said the principal of Dawid Bezuidenhout High School, Dennis Fredericks. He said research conducted at his school last year revealed that almost ten per cent of boys belonged to gangs, others were practising Satanism and many others had been sexually abused.’As a result of this research, we concluded that most of the problems underlying poor performances in schools do not originate within the school grounds,’ he said. Teachers at the Hage Geingob Secondary School said one of their challenges was a lack of classrooms, as the school only had 18 classrooms for 23 teachers.’The other problem is that some learners can speak proper English but have difficulties in writing it. We also experience textbook shortages and the lack of a library at the school makes it difficult for us to encourage a culture of reading amongst students,’ they said.Other factors listed by the principals included a lack of involvement by parents in the education of their children, home environments not conducive to studying and the ever-increasing number of noisy shebeens in certain areas. Some teachers are also not interested in doing a good job, they admitted.
