Some teachers who are currently marking Form Three and Form Five examination papers are warning the nation to brace for the worst examinations results in years.
According to teachers who requested to remain anonymous, the results will be worse than the recently announced Standard Seven results, which the Ministry of Education and Skills Development has conceded were bad.
“I foresee the worst results than I have seen in my many years as an examinations marker and teacher. There is evidence that students had not finished their syllabus in the subject of mathematics that I am teaching,” said one teacher.
According to him, there is enough evidence that students have done only half or less of what they were expected to have covered when they sat for examinations.
“Students who showed good articulation of mathematics just got wrong mathematical problems that they could have got right if they have covered the whole syllabus,” said the teacher.
Another teacher, who also requested to remain anonymous, said that even in subjects like Moral Education, some students showed the same problem that they have not covered the whole syllabus as they failed to answer questions that they would have been expected to answer had they covered the whole subject.
“I am now convinced that the strike by civil servants early this year has made adverse effects on the students that we will leave to regret and this is stressing us as teachers and parents,” said the teacher.
A Form Five student from Gaborone Secondary school recently confirmed that there were questions from parts of the syllabus that they had not covered in their examinations and that they had no choice but to skip such questions.
“We were requested to answer questions from subjects we have never covered and this was a problem for all of us in the school,” said the student.
The Minister of Education and Skills Development, Pelonomi Venson Moitoi, declined to comment on the issue.
