29 Mar 2015

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development has acquired resources so that all extracurricular activities in schools continue to run effectively from April 14.

The public relations officer for the ministry, Mr Silas Sehularo said this in an interview this week.

He said the ministry’s executive would be meeting with the concerned stakeholders to map a sustainable way on the matter, adding that it was regrettable that the uncertainty had inconvenienced students, teachers, parents and the public at large.

Mr Sehularo said the ministry was working on a permanent solution together with stakeholders concerned. He noted that their position was that extracurricular activities were ongoing and they have not officially been stopped in schools. He said however, the ministry had challenges with resources as they affect both schools’ extracurricular activities and other general school activities as well.

Lately, the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) has emerged to be struggling in terms of organising competitions, assembling teams for major competitions and the BAA vice president attributed that to overtime problem between teachers and the government.

Glody Dube stressed that the issue continues to impede on the Association’s business, adding that presently there are no sport activities in schools. He said BAA’s efficiency has always depended on schools as the custodians of athletes, who are mostly students.

“Today, when we write to Botswana Integrated Sports Association (BISA) or Botswana Primary School Sports Association (BOPSA) they will tell you that there do not do sport activities until their issue has been resolved.

In the past, the associations used to arrange everything, but that is no longer happening. For some years, teachers have been at loggerheads with their employer, demanding to be paid overtime for sports activities, given that they spend their time training students, attending sports tournament during weekends and knocking off late,” he said.

Dube said the association still awaits the resolution of the matter, adding that the official have to arrange teams but athletes are not on form as they have no trainers to prepare them for the competitions. He cited as a challenge assembling the team of athletes as they are spread across the country, while some are also out of school. 
He said although their athletes did well at the just ended Africa Junior championships, he believes that if the athletes were coached they would have done better.

The BAA official said the issue of tools became apparent in some of their athletes who could even reach the finishing line and said the situation needs attention. “Some of the athletes were not fit and we could not blame them as we are aware of the situation. There was a difference between the ones from Goodhope senior school of excellence and others, because they had a coach though for two weeks,” added Dube.

He said they were only hoping to get more coaches in each centre to address the current situation. The Vice President said they intend to send a technical team to South Africa to benchmark as they experienced the same problem in the past.

Presently BAA is ranked seventh and there is potential for them to be ranked better, if the environment is enabling. President of BISA, Joshua Gaotlhobogwe concurred with Dube that no sporting activities were taking place in schools, adding that the ministry had communicated that there was no money for transport, teachers’ upkeep and overtime among others.

Gaotlhobogwe said initially it was easy for BAA to assemble a team as BISA assisted by training and accessing students prior to major competitions, adding that currently there are no calendar events being implemented.
“BAA fields unfit athletes in competitions and those who are winning are doing so by the grace of God. Even those in sport centre of excellence won’t benefit the association much,” he said.

Gaotlhobogwe said until the ministry manages to secure money for sport and also pay owed overtimes, the situation would not change. BOPSA president, Busani Segweni said, “We do not have a problem with BAA, but our employer. It is unfortunate to see the association struggling but the problem is beyond us.”

He said the ministry admitted that they owed teachers overtime allowance and would not want it to accumulate, hence the decision to stop sport activities. Segweni said primary school students’ welfare was the responsibility of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, adding that sport has become a core subject and as teachers they were ready to do their work provided the ministry pays them. 
Given the ministry’s position, track and field lovers will soon be treated to a series of athletics events. ENDS