22 Sep 2015

Gantsi Senior Secondary School recently celebrated its 20^th anniversary under the theme ,Celebrating 20 years of existence and an endeavor for academic excellence. 

The celebrations were held in conjunction with the school prize giving ceremony to reward students who have performed well academically and in their respective clubs in the school as well as the teaching and non-teaching staff for their continued exceptional contribution to the school.

For some former students, this was an opportunity of a reunion as many from the first batch to ever set foot on Gantsi senior as students were in attendance, notably the classes of 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998. 

The very first ever Gantsi senior school head boy Mr Stanford Sebeetswekgomo, now a business partner- livestock systems division at Botswana Meat Commission is proud of what Gantsi senior has produced out of him. 

Mr Sebeetswekgomo recalls that as the first group to be admitted to Gantsi senior, things were tough for them as the group comprised of many students from all walks of life and as a Kanye native as well as coming to Gantsi back then was a challenge and required nerves of steel.

“The only tarred road into Kgalagadi back then ended in Sekoma, from there you took two days negotiating the rough terrains of the Kgalagadi desert to reach Gantsi, mind you, there were no cellphones then. Sometimes it took a whole month for you to get correspondence from your family via post and this was tough on most of us since we were not from this side.

There was a time many of us contemplated going back to our respective villages but what would surprise you was that at the end of each term you’d think it was your last time seeing your schoolmates but come reopening school days, we were all back here,” Sebeetswekgomo recalls.

Gantsi senior’s first batch of students consisted of form three to form five students and due to the fact that Gantsi senior premises were not yet complete the school started its operations from Ledumang Senior secondary in Gaborone. 

Upon completion of Gantsi senior premises, the 1994 intake was then transferred from Ledumang to Gantsi senior in 1995. The first national examinations in Gantsi senior were written in 1996. Ends