27 Apr 2017

Tsabong Unified Secondary School head,Mr Kooagile Gabonthone has emplored the school’s form Five students who are attending a boot camp to display a high level of commitment in all activities and model positive values at all times.
Speaking during the school’s official opening of the boot camp in Tsabong recently, Mr Gabonthone said that the purpose of the boot camp was to educate students about life skills and prepare them for life after secondary school as well as to address and overcome undesirable behaviour such as drug abuse by students.

“It is increasingly a concern that our young people lack in character to respond in the various dynamic life situations of this day. They seem to be easily pressured to engage in some behaviours that are viewed as destructive and in the process lose on some of the core values that are typical to our culture. It is the underpinning tenet of this boot camp to promote the social, intellectual, emotional, ethical, moral and spiritual development among students and help them to become responsible, caring and contributing citizens,” he said.
For her part, Performance Improvement Coordinator for the Kgalagadi Regional Education Centre, Ms Neo Tsietso said that the boot camp served as a platform to enable learners to develop good work ethics and entrepreneurial skills so that they were able to gain self –employment readiness experience.

She also pointed out that the boot camp served as a window that the government used to create career exposure opportunities for learners as well as to develop and enhance both life and survival skills in learners.
“The boot camp brings in life skills education which includes entrepreneurship, career guidance and financial literacy and management. Work ethics and corruption are also critical areas that will be addressed during this boot camp,” she explained.
Furthermore, Ms Tsietso said that upon completion of the boot camp participants would be given certificates of attendance which might come handy when they applied for jobs and government funding in the future.
Ms Tsietso stressed that after the boot camp there should be increased participation in community services by participants, reduced number of indiscipline cases, improved academic performance and increased interest in self-employment initiatives or ventures by learners.

For his part, Tsabong Sub-council vice chairperson, Mr Lucky Lorekang urged participants to pay attention to guests, community members and facilitators who had been invited to share their knowledge and skills with them during the 10 days of the boot camp.
He noted that the boot camp was a replacement of initiation schools of the past; bogwera and bojale, where young boys and girls were taught about cultural traditions, norms and values as a way of grooming them into adults with social responsibility.
“Young boys and girls in the past were taken into the bush and stayed for a period of three months or more. They were taught about traditional roles and life skills. In this modern world, we now have boot camps which are imperative for your overall success. ENDS