School Opening Pitseng High School and School / Exam Results

Geschrieben von Irina Andre-Lang

School Opening Pitseng High School and School / Exam Results

Meanwhile, we have received the results of Pitseng High School's JC exam 2020. The matric results 2020, which was also only been written by the sponsored students of the twelfth grade (Form E) in March 2021 due to the Corona school closure, are still pending. Only when these are published will we be able to send the relevant sponsors a message as to whether their sponsored student has to repeat the twelfth grade or not.

Die 21 Patenkinder der zehnten Schulklasse 2020

Interpretation of the JC results 2016-2020 at PHS

The Junior Certificate Exam (JC) is an exam written at the end of the tenth grade. Pupils can only continue with high school if they pass this exam. The results are divided into five ratings: 1st Class +, 1st Class, 2nd Class, 3rd Class and Failed. Yes we care! e.V. = YWC, Pitseng High School = PHS.

The results of the last five JC exams were as follows:

JC results in percent

JC results in numbers

Source of the results for PHS and Lesotho: Examinations Council of Lesotho

The JC results of the students of the Child Sponsorship Program (CSP) of Yes we care! e.V. (YWC) in 2020 are no surprise! Due to the school closings due to the corona pandemic, they only had classes for a few weeks, and this after the school year 2019 had already been affected by the national teachers' strike. Two thirds of our students were unsuccessful, only one third passed the JC exams.

The results of PHS, which were above the national average until 2016, have fallen dramatically over the past few years and have been below the national average since 2017. This situation worsened considerably in 2020! The results for PHS would have been even worse without the sponsored students from the YWC CSP, who, as usual, passed above the PHS average!

This could be partly explained by the lack of additional lessons to prepare the students in Form C and E for their exams, which are normally offered by PHS during the big winter holidays (in the German summer) and in which all YWC CSP students otherwise take part in order to improve their academic performance and to ensure their success. Unfortunately, the positive changes that were made to the girls' boarding to improve the study situation could not yet help, as the school and thus also the boarding facilities were closed for almost the entire school year 2020.

All students who failed their JC exam will have to repeat 10th grade and the JC exam this school year 2021. Their sponsors will be informed accordingly. Students who passed will be moved to the eleventh grade. Nevertheless, they will finally finish their matric together at the end of 2022. The reason for this is the change in the curriculum for the secondary level, which provides that from 2022 the matric will not be written after 5 years of schooling (i.e. at the end of 12th grade), but after 4 years (i.e. at the end of 11th grade). That this change is being introduced right now is more than unfortunate and comes at the worst time! How are pupils supposed to be successful in their matric if half of their school time has been cancelled due to strikes and the consequences of a pandemic and then their school time is shortened by a whole school year? Unfortunately, we have no way of influencing such decisions and can only support our sponsored students and Pitseng High School as much as possible.

The best news is that starting next Monday, May 3rd, 2021, all schools in Lesotho will be allowed to reopen and school operations at Pitseng High School will finally start again - for the majority of students after more than a year of missed classes. Thanks to generous donations, Yes we care! e.V. was able to finance more disinfectants for the school, so that all conditions for the school opening, which are checked by the Ministry of Education, can be met. How the school calendar for 2021 will look like, e.g. when school holidays and exam times will be, will still be decided and published by the Ministry of Education. The school fees will certainly be increased significantly this year, as the prices for food have risen sharply.

Since winter has already arrived in Lesotho with heavy snowfalls, we are happy to know that our sponsored children are in the care of the school where they can get enough food and warm blankets.

The sixth and for the foreseeable future last hunger relief was successfully completed last week. All sponsored students were visited and provided with basic food items. Unfortunately - but not unexpectedly - it turned out during these visits that six girls, all from the eleventh grade, do not want to continue with their education and will leave the sponsorship program. One of them ran away with her boyfriend, the reasons for the other five are unknown to us. Another 11th grade girl is pregnant and will have to skip school for a while. The only good thing is that all of these girls had at least successfully passed their JC exam at the end of the tenth grade and will therefore have an advantage when looking for work or further training!

It is almost impossible for us to judge what the situation with regard to the corona pandemic in Lesotho looks like. According to official figures, there are 10,731 people who have tested positive and 316 who have died of Covid 19 so far. The real extent is certainly much worse! It remains to be seen when there will be an opportunity for a vaccination in Lesotho.

We would like to thank all sponsors who, despite these many challenges, loyally support their sponsored student/s and all donors and hope that things will slowly improve again.