29 Jun 2016

Some 105 former Macha Senior Secondary School students have graduated after enrolling in a programme that equipped them with skills that will enable them to explore different career pathways.

The youth graduated from a number of vocational skills such as art, building of lelwapa, theatre, drama, poetry, the skills that have a therapeutic component as well.

The programme was a joint initiative between private sector and the community and aimed at facilitating healing and providing psychosocial support as well as vocational skills after they were involved in a truck accident along Takatokwane/Dutlwe in Kweneng East.

The road accident claimed the lives of other Macha students whilst scores were injured when being transported by a truck to their villages after completing BGCSE exams last year November.

Giving a keynote at Kweneng District Skills Development Programme (KDSDP) graduation ceremony, education ministry permanent secretary Dr Theophilus Mooko said the programme has also identified talent among some graduates.

Dr Mooko said collective effort was critical in delivery of successful training and skills transfer.

He said the challenges faced at the beginning of the programme were bound to be because most of the participants were both emotionally and physically challenged.

“Some were in and out of hospital hence the first phase of the programme focused on healing, rehabilitation and psychosocial support,” he said.

Dr Mooko commended the collective spirit and effort demonstrated by Kweneng District support team for a success story despite a socio-cultural medical and professional challenges faced and urged the team to continue with the good gesture.

“As the ministry we have enjoyed the benefits of collective effort. Let’s celebrate this achievement with pride,” Dr Mooko emphasised.

For his part Molepolole/Lentsweletau sub-council deputy chair Mr Slumber Mokgosi assured graduates that government will continue to support the students in all their endeavors and that most of all graduates must put into use what they have learnt in their last six months of training.

He said since most of them were going to be admitted at tertiary institutions, the skills they have acquired must come handy in adapting to new life and culture of the city and most of all must desist from engaging in behavior likely to misrepresent where they come from.

He implored the young graduates to always stop and ponder if at all the behaviour and character they exhibit were right especially from the generation expected to lead Botswana into its future. Ends