Africa-Press – Botswana. Parents have been advised to create supporting environments where their children would thrive academically.
Ngami Member of Parliament, Mr Caterpillar Hikuama made the call during a kgotla meeting he addressed in Somelo.
Mr Hikuama was responding to concerns raised about the high number of out of school youths idling in the village while some were lining up and competing for Ipelegeng jobs with elders.
He said it was disturbing that some youths dropped out of school while others failed academically and challenged parents to change their mindset towards their children’s education.
Parental involvement in the education of children, he said, began at home with parents providing a safe and healthy environment.
Mr Hikuama also expressed concern that some parents prioritised alcohol consumption over their children’s education, hence many performed poorly at school.
“To be successful in education is not a matter of genes as some may think.
All can pass as long as they take their studies seriously and parents become involved.
This is a matter of mindset change,” he added.
Mr Hikuama noted that education should be recognised as a tool that could eradicate poverty and challenged parents to collaborate in parenting young people by forming close bonds with them, something which he said would avert moral decay among them.
He said parents should enhance behaviour change in children and empower them economically so that they led better lives.
Earlier on, the village development committee chairperson, Mr Mogopolo Ramapodise, expressed concern over the escalating number of out of school youths saying some lined up to join the Ipelegeng programme.
He lamented that it was difficult to recruit some of the youths because of their age.
He pleaded with the council to consider taking the youths to vocational training and also strive to fight poverty by creating employment opportunities for people in remote areas.
On other issues, he requested the council to fill the post of the social worker in the village, noting that those benefiting from social welfare programmes had been suffering as they got their packages very late, adding that some destitute persons stayed two months without assistance.
He appreciated that some officers such as a court bailiff and an agricultural demonstrator could not be posted to the village because of lack of accommodation.
Kgosi Mokhutshwane Komee lamented mushrooming of squatters in the village due to delayed land allocation unlike in other villages in the Ngamiland District.
He complained about the delay by the Tawana Land Board to allocate plots in Somelo, which had resulted in the mushrooming of squatters.
“This village has been in existence since 1998 and the last allocation was in 2015.
It is painful as some elders were illegally allocating themselves residential plots because of the delay by the land board,” he complained.
Kgosi Komee noted that some elders from the neighbouring farms had returned home and occupied land illegally and wished the land board could accelerate land allocation to curb the problem before it got out of hand.
He appreciated that a company was engaged last year to conduct land survey and the exercise had long been completed, but to this date there was nothing happening.
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