GABORONE, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Botswana planned to allocate more resources to rural schools to bridge the educational gap between rural and urban students following the recent release of Junior Certificate Examination (JCE) results.
Speaking at a media briefing on the JCE results in Gaborone on Thursday, Minister of Child Welfare and Basic Education Nono Mokoka said building infrastructure is at the top of the government's priority list. "There is no way we can talk about child-friendly schools without having proper infrastructure."
The JCE results are primarily used for selection into senior secondary school, with a total of 45,284 candidates taking the examination. Overall performance in government schools improved slightly, with the percentage of students earning a grade C or better (a credit pass) rising by 1.46 percentage points, from 37.10 percent to 38.57 percent. The percentage of students achieving grade E or better increased by 2.44 percentage points, from 83.10 percent to 85.54 percent.
Despite this improvement, Mokoka said that government schools still lag behind private schools. She also expressed concern that 11,526 students received ungraded or X grades, with the lowest-performing regions being Ghanzi and North West, both located in rural areas.
She stressed the importance of equality and equity, saying that students in rural areas and the most vulnerable must be prioritized and provided with the same resources as their urban counterparts to ensure fair competition.
"We will focus on supporting students in remote areas and the most vulnerable to help them succeed," she said.
Additional measures to improve overall performance include intensifying out-of-school programs to help students retake failed subjects, expanding vocational training, enhancing information and communication technology and internet connectivity, and improving school accessibility by placing students closer to their homes. ■
