Poor performance at Madithame – a wakeup call
Apel
Following the poor performance of the Grade 12 class of 2020 at Madithame Secondary School members of the community had initiated Saturday school in advancing learners to excel in the next exams finals.
The school has obtained 8% pass rate for matric class of 2020, with an estimated capacity of 6 learners passed out of total number of 36 learners.
Ga-Mankotsana residents in Apel within FetaKgomo Tubatse Local Municipality (FTLM) have publicly announced their disappointments over underperformed matric results.
A member of the community, Derrick Mosoane, blamed the school management, educators and learners for the disappointing performance of the school.
Derricks said this year the school is aiming to exceed 50% pass rate for matriculants despite lower performance last year.
Articulating some of the school challenges he said the school has shortage of educators as it has only 6 of them.
“As concerned guardians, we initiated extra classes on Saturday in helping learners and we also implored our teachers to volunteer during Saturday lessons,” said Derrick.
Derrick said on issues such as this, holding the Principal accountable will not help in any way but that it is everyone’s responsibility to play a role in improving the matric performance results.
“All affected stakeholders should take accountability for the poor performance of the learners,” he explained.
He said as a result of poor performance the circuit manager wanted to close the school and merge it with a nearby school.
It is alleged that the circuit manager instructed Madithame principal not to enrol grade 8 learners.
Derrick said they refused the circuit manager to close the school citing that not only is the school close to where most learners live, but it has produced high profile professionals, he also added that they would do anything to protect the reputation of the school.
“We took upon our decisiveness action by gathering at the school and put learning and teaching on hold at surrounded schools demanding him to clarify,” he briefed.
He said in February, Madithame has remained closed while the issue remained unresolved between community and circuit manager.
As it stands, Madithame resumed with teaching and learning after circuit manager reversed his attempt to close the school.
Derrick said circuit manager accepted their proposal to allow all failed local learners to enrol at Madithame.
He said the current principal is about to retire and his successor should be from the local places.
Derrick said previously the school hasn’t been offering Economics as a subject but now it has been added to the school stream.
He however reiterated that guardians should also ensure learners in doing schoolwork and that misbehaving and problematic learners will no longer be tolerated.
