GOBABIS: The Omaheke Regional Education directorate has been hard at work to implement strategies that would see an improvement in the performances of especially the region’s Grade 10s in the final examinations.
The Omaheke Region, which has seen a drastic deterioration in Grade 10, has vowed to turn around its ailing image with a number of intervention strategies.
The Regional Education Director, Nathalia Goagoses told Nampa in an interview on Thursday that the region is aiming for nothing less than a 52% pass rate for the Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) examinations.
The region held two regional consultative conferences earlier this year, where cards were placed on the table by all concerned on what appears to be hampering learners’ performances, Goagoses noted.
She said all stakeholders in education who had participated in the conferences have since been keeping a close eye on performances of learners – assisting where necessary in order to secure the set target of 52%.
“We found that there are an array of factors affecting learners’ performance in the region, ranging from family set-ups to the learner’s individual ability to perform. As such, all these challenges were listed and deliberated upon at these conferences,” she said.
Omaheke attained an average of 37% pass rate in the 2011 JSC examinations, making it the worst performing region in the country.
Amongst some of the radical changes implemented in the region to improve the results are standardised question papers for mid-year term examinations for all Grade 10s across the region and frequent meetings between stakeholders to touch base on the progress made.
“We have received overwhelming support and commitment from our teaching staff, who are more determined to do everything in their power to make sure the set target is reached and even exceeded. I had teachers coming to me and saying they were even ready to sign performance contracts if need be. Such has been the response,” the Regional Education Director stated.
According to Goagoses, although targets were set in the past as a yardstick for measuring performances, such targets were not followed through with strict monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure their implementation.
Radical changes, in the form of new school principals, were also made to the region’s worst performing schools – Gustav Kandjii Junior Secondary in the Otjinene Constituency and Epukiro Pos 3 Junior Secondary School at Epukiro. Both schools attained a dismal 9 per cent and 11 per cent pass rate respectively, during last November’s JSC examinations.