12 Jul 2015

Japanese deputy ambassador, Keiji Hamada, says Batswana have a unique and amazing talent that needs to be nourished and marketed to the world.

Officially opening the Association of Botswana Schools Performing Arts (ABOSPA) competitions in Mahalapye of Friday (July 10), Hamada said performing arts formed a strong and illustrious heritage, of which Batswana were uniquely talented.

He said Batswana had also shown passion through music and dance and that is why the country had managed to maintain its peace, stability and unity over the years.

Besides being a sign of happiness, arts were also glue that could bind people together regardless of the race they belonged to or the status they found themselves in.

He said the existence of performing arts in schools could increase a number of lifelong activities that students could choose from, adding that it could also served as a strategy to ensure that no child was left behind.

Therefore, he applauded ABOSPA for being responsible for developing the arts industry from the grass roots level as it would make students more focused and well-coordinated.

Through ABOSPA, he said it would be easy to spot, guide and manage the talent of students from the tender age to the time they reach adulthood.

Furthermore, Hamada said there was need to invest in quality education by making it priority in the development goals.

He said Botswana had appropriated considerable funds for education since its independence and belief that Botswana and Japan share the same view concerning the importance of education in nation building.

He said the two countries had been working on various educational cooperation projects from government level to individual level, citing the Japan’s broadcasting services which had been helping with the assistance of Botswana Educational Television and the Digital TV broadcasting, which was the first in Africa.

Hamada said there had also been a number of exchange programmes between the two countries through the national scholarship programs or exchange programs between individual universities.

He said through this active cooperation in the educational field, Japan wishes to contribute towards the development of education in this country and assist to create a good environment for teachers and their students.

He said in future, the cooperation would be extended to the area of creative arts.

For his part, the president of ABOSPA, Patrick Setsiba said the competition comprised of students from primary, secondary and tertiary both government and the private schools.
Setsiba said their objective was to coordinate and facilitate performing arts activities that were meant to develop and market artists from primary up to tertiary schools.

He said they also aspire to be the best world class association in developing and creating a brighter future for all performing arts aspirants in the country.

He noted that though they were made of mainly teachers who had actively involved in nurturing the children into becoming better artist; they need the support of organisation and the private sector to help them in harnessing their talents.  Ends