GOBABIS: The Omaheke Regional Education Directorate has initiated a Holiday School for its Grade 10s in an effort to improve the overall result of the region in the national examinations.

Omaheke was the worst-performing region during last year’s Grade 10 results.

Over 300 Grade 10 learners, drawn from various schools in the region, are gathered at the Wennie du Plessis Secondary School (SS) for revision classes. The classes will be conducted for all promotional subjects offered in Grade 10.

The Holiday School will run for four days, from 17 to 21 August 2012.

Attending the classes are Grade 10 learners who have scored between 16 and 23 points in the April examinations.

Regional Examination Officer, Frans van Wyk, praised the initiative, noting that such initiatives will go a long way in placing the region at shoulder-level with the rest.

“This is a welcome initiative, and we were hoping that we could in fact have more days as four days are a bit short. Nonetheless, the teachers have shown their commitment towards the programme and we expect better results at the end of the day,” he said.

The Gustav Kandjii Junior SS, Epukiro Post III Junior SS and the Mokganedi Thlabanello Senior SS near Drimiopsis were the region’s worst performing schools.

All these schools have sent learners to the Holiday School, along with seven other schools in the region.

According to van Wyk, the Holiday School is ideally timed to improve the results of the learners before the national examination.

“It is all about improving performance, which is very important at this stage. We even have students who decided to come on their own even if they do not fall within the selection criteria,” said van Wyk.

The Omaheke Regional Education office earlier this year announced the reshuffle of some of its school principals, saying they were to blame for the poor performance during last year’s Grade 10 examinations, which saw Omaheke dropping from 10th position to last.