Africa-Press – Botswana. The North East District is betting on an initiative dubbed Mbizi, a Kalanga word meaning letsema in Setswana or labour pooling, to renovate junior secondary schools in the area.
Speaking at the start of maintenance work at Batanani Junior Secondary School, North East District Council chairperson on Tuesday, Mr Kudzani Tobokwani said all junior secondary schools in the North East District would be maintained through the initiative.
Students from Shashe and Zwenshambe brigades, joined the school community to maintain the school which had, for a long been in a dilapidated state.
Residents from catchment villages of Pole, Masukwane, Kgari and Mosojane also put to good use, their trades as carpentry, bricklaying, plumbing, plastering, painting and decorating. They also cleared the yard.
Mr Tobokwani urged residents to embrace the initiative for it positively impacted on the education sector and revived the spirit of self-reliance.
He said junior schools were in a bad state and the initiative was a way of assisting government and also a cost recovery measure. “Government cannot build schools and at the same time maintain them without the involvement of the community,” he said.
Mr Tobokwani said the phenomena was not alien to Batswana as the University of Botswana was built using the same idea.
Ministry of Education and Skills Development, North East Regional Operations director, Mr Labane Mokgosi said Mbizi initiative started last year and had proved to be effective, the first beneficiary being Shanganani Junior Secondary School in Tsamaya.
Mr Mokgosi said COVID-19 disrupted government plans hence a backlog of schools’ maintenance which he said was a community project and should remain as such.
He said since the removal of ‘community’ that was attached to names of junior secondary schools many now believed that government was taking over the responsibility of the schools.
“That is not the case, maintenance of these schools remains a community project,” said Mr Mokgosi adding that government highly appreciated the initiative given its tight budget.
The school head, Mr Teedzani Mkandla attributed the school’s poor performance in last year’s junior certificate results to the bad state of the school.
He explained that the school obtained 37.3 per cent in last year’s junior certificate results as compared to 50.3 per cent in 2021.
“We believe that the learning environment is not conducive for learners hence the Mbizi initiative will alleviate the problem,” said Mr Mkandla.
He said the school was in a dire state and needed replacement of window panels and doors, maintenance of staff houses, ablutions, pupils’ hostels, maintenance of school fence, kitchen and school hall among many others.
Mr Mkandla said lack of staff accommodation was a serious challenge because married teachers were forced to share accommodation, a situation made worse by lack of accommodation in the village.
Residents of the catchment villages and the business community large raised more than P15 500 while others pledged food items.
Maintenance work at Matsiloje Junior Secondary School is next and is scheduled for April 28.
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