17 Nov 2016

Ntlo Ya Dikgosi chairperson, Kgosi Puso, has implored dikgosi to play a meaningful role in education.

Speaking during  the on-going secondary school heads conference in Francistown, Kgosi Puso said there was need for dikgosi to view education as a national investment that needed support from all stakeholders.

He said dikgosi should assist in fostering responsible parenting to mould children into accountable citizens.

“As dikgosi we must view education as a model of successful society and to attain that we must ensure that responsibility starts at family level hence lore lo ojwa le sale metsi,” he said.

Kgosi Puso said dikgosi were custodians of culture and they should be mindful that culture plays a critical role in building a principled society.

He observed that while the community is expected to be stakeholders in building decent future society there are some members who do the contrary by selling drugs and even sleeping with children.

Kgosi Puso called for a strong collaboration between schools, communities and the village leadership in order to close all the gaps that might result in children's delinquent behaviour.

He suggested that schools should be willing to share their examination results analysis with the village leadership in order to try and come up with solutions to the decline in performance.

“Bogosi should also be willing to actively participate in school activities and always motivate students of schools that exist in their villages,” he said.

North regional manager of Business Botswana, Mr Kebaabetswe Bogatsu noted that schools were faced with social ills such as teenage pregnancies, alcohol/drug abuse, violence and vandalism.

He called for policies that would keep the social ills at bay, adding in some cases the students engaged in ill behaviour because they had a lot of free time.

“Some bad behavior is encouraged by students who always find parents and guardians not home because of work and to curb stakeholders need to sit together and come up with ways on how their free time can be reduced by engaging them in extracurricular activities,” he said.

Francistown mayor, Ms Sylvia Muzila implored the teachers to be always alert of what they do even after work hours as it has potential to impact on performance.

She citied that in some instances teachers do not perform as expected because they put themselves in a lot of debts.

“As teachers you should avoid personal activities that can interfere with your work, nevertheless the nation recognises your efforts in building this nation,” she said. BOPA