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SAME PUPILS WRITE EXAM FOR THIRD TIME

03/01/2017 08:48:00 BY NTOMBI MHLONGO

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DWALILE – The saying that the past always comes back to haunt you rings true for Dwalile Primary School.

This is because an incident of malpractice during the Grade VII examination which took place in 2014 seems to have been one of the contributing factors to the school’s dismal performance in this year’s results, where it recorded 41 failures.

After the malpractice incident in 2014, the pupils were made to repeat the same class the following year (2015) where most of them failed again. They then had to repeat again last year (2016), where the 41 failures were recorded.
According to the Deputy Head teacher, Ernest Dlamini, the fact that the class of 2016 still had some of the pupils who were involved in the malpractice in 2014 contributed immensely to the performance last year.
Dlamini is currently leading the school after the retirement of the head teacher in October last year.

“We still had the pupils and they still have the mentality of malpractice and I guess this time they discovered that things were tight so they couldn’t pass. Imagine having one and the same pupils repeating the same class, it would be difficult,” the disappointed deputy said.

Dlamini mentioned that the results showed that English Language and Home Economics were the subjects that the pupils failed.
According to him, Home Economics was let down by the fact that the subject teacher went for maternity leave when the third term began and had to get another one to stand in.

“The fact that she was away for the whole term affected the pupils as they had to then deal with someone who they did not start the year with. The pupils first have to get to know a teacher so it means it was too late,” Dlamini said.
Asked on what would happen in the new academic year Dlamini said he was going to meet with all the stakeholders of the school to map a way forward.
He said he was hoping that the strategies that will be put in place will include workshops which he said the school desperately needed.

“I feel sad because in the nine years that I had worked here, the school used to perform better. The 41 failures is just too much,” Dlamini said.
Meanwhile, Charles Mkhonta, outgoing Chairman of the school committee, whose term is coming to an end, also said the results were disappointing but highlighted that there was a need to work hard and find a solution on how things can be improved.

He said in the three years that he had spent at a school, he had noted that there were things that were out of his control. He admitted that the past incidents had let down his hard work during his term of office.
“The sadness is there because it is never nice when you try to work hard, then there are incidents of malpractice and poor results. However, there is no way you can stop a teacher from making pupils copy, so at times it is beyond your control,” he said.