05 Oct 2015

Engen Botswana in collaboration with Sebilo Investment has refurbished a library at Kgomodiatshaba Primary School. 

Speaking in an event to hand over the library, human resources manager at Engen Botswana, Ms Francinah Tswai said the responsibility of the entire business and its stakeholders was to act in a manner that impacts positively on the social, economic, natural and built environment as well as on society as a whole. 

Therefore, Ms Tswai said it was upon this basis that Engen Botswana had set up a robust corporate social investment policy, placing emphasis on education in the fields of mathematics, science and technology. 

“We are conscious of the fact that the above areas of learning are transmitted through reading. In other words, the success or otherwise in these areas are primarily dependent on the pupils’ ability to acquire knowledge through reading,” she said.  She said they chose to address the first basic point of entry in learning by donating a library as the place where the seeds of reading could be cultivated and be meaningfully nourished. 

In the recent years, Ms Tswai further said they had through a partnership with the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) and Sebilo Book Services unveiled similar projects in Kgoro primary school in the Southern district and Mogorosi in the Central district. 

Kgoro primary school library, she said was launched in 2013 and the PSLE results had improved from 38.9 per cent in that year to 57.5 per cent in 2014.

She said there were aware that other interventions were in place. However, she said they believe that the library had also contributed to the improvement. 

She noted that MoESD ought to be commended for conceiving the Adopt-A-School initiative and for further partnering with Sebilo Book Services in a project that had now covered 20 schools. 

For his part, private secretary to the education minister, Mr Peter Maruapula commended Engen Botswana and Sebilo Investment for donating a library to the school. 

Earlier in her welcoming remarks, the school head, Ms Ogomoditse Mhapha said the school had 161 students including the pre-school pupils. Ms Mhapha noted that in the past years, the school did not do well in SLE results. However, she said through the library, the results would change.  Ends