Africa-Press – Botswana. Government recognises the transformational potential of investing in a knowledge-based economy where the creation of and application of knowledge become central to economic growth.
Speaking at the construction of a new primary school groundbreaking ceremony in Palapye on Friday, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Mpho Morapedi, said skilled and knowledgeable workforce drove innovation, increased productivity and fostered competitiveness in the global market.
Therefore, Mr Morapedi said it was on such premise that government prioritised to continue to direct resources toward transforming and enhancing the delivery of the education and training. As such, he said, government made progress in improving the quality of education for all children, through among others, reducing class sizes and providing teachers with accommodation.
He said the general education curriculum and training would be reviewed to support outcome based education in line with the education and training sector Strategic Plan of 2015-2020.
Giving an overview of the number of schools in Palapye together with the total enrollment, he said Palapye had eight primary schools with a total enrollment of 7 144 and all schools were over-subscribed, resulting with some classes taught in the open.
This was further worsened by the revised teacher ratio of 1:30 following COVID-19, to promote social distancing.
“This is another contributing factor to shortage of classrooms,” he said. “This necessitated government to construct new primary school in Palapye.”
As such, he said the construction of a new primary school formed part of Economic Recovery and Transformational Plan (ERTP) conceived in 2021/22 financial year to address repercussions of COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the new school would reduce distance walked by learners from Extensions 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 and 11 location to walk a distance of less than 5km as advocated for by Revised National Policy on Education (RNPE).
He said it would also reduce congestion from other primary especially Morwalela, Ratsie and Sebeso primary schools.
The project entails construction of academic facilities, classrooms, library, administration block, kitchen, daycare and staff houses.
The project is divided into four packages being academic facilities and three packages for staff houses at the tune of P80 million. To create employment and spread the risk, he said, the construction of staff houses was awarded to three contractors Kabotswerere Investment to the tune of P11.3 million, Trade Gurus Investment at P11.5 million and at P2.8 million to Lekofo.
The academic facilities package included construction of 22 classrooms, library, administration block, kitchen with dining, daycare and ablution.
The facilities will be constructed by Trust Construction and Engineering at P50.8 million. Project and the project which started on March is planned to be completed on September 5, 2025.
He appealed to contractors to ensure that the project was delivered within budget, specifications and on time. As part of Local Economic Empowerment the contractor was encouraged to engage local artisans to create employment and procure materials locally to promote Economic Diversification Drive (EDD).
He said the contrustion of a new school was one of the many projects government implemented in Palapye District. In the past years, the footprints of government has grown in the entire district. Projects implemented included but not limited to Constituency Community Projects to the tune of P108 million since inception.
Mr Morapedi said the funds were used to implement several development projects in the different villages in the district including construction of internal roads, construction and maintenance of kgotla shelters, expansion of health posts and many others.
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