26 Aug 2018

Ministry of Basic Education (MoBE) and BIHL Trust have recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) to establish an official sustainable cooperation between the two entities.

Speaking at the signing ceremony of the P700 000 worth sponsorship, which will run until 2021, deputy permanent secretary (programmes and policy) in the ministry, Ms Hellen Chilisa applauded BIHL Trust for improving education, noting that their relationship comes a long way and is destined to grow with time.

This agreement, which is intended to primarily focus on academic excellence and sport development, comes from way back in 2012, where BIHL used to donate balls for soccer teams and netball teams in some rural primary schools around the country. The MOU will see BIHL Trust supporting sporting skills improvement, a critical part of childhood development by donating 1 512 soccer balls and 1 512 netballs every other year, an initiative that began in 2017.

The sporting equipment will be distributed among the 756 schools across the country.

Furthermore, BIHL Trust will sponsor prize giving ceremonies at 11 adopted primary schools being Tshwaragano, Cwaanyane, Mafetsakgang, Chakaloba, Mogobane, Serinane, Goshwe, Nokaneng, Kuke, Mmathabekwe and Bopaganang.

These are some of the worst performing schools.

The sponsors will award prizes to Standard Seven top performers and the best performing school will receive a P50 000 cash prize, which will be used to buy equipment such as photocopiers.

In the meantime, Ms Chilisa said; “In line with government objectives of providing quality education from primary to tertiary level, we are delighted to have BIHL Trust come on board to assist us in this journey.

As with Vision 2036 pillars, we can only achieve prosperity for all if we make concerted efforts to improve the quality of our education system and the end product, being well developed graduates.”

For his part, BIHL Trust chairperson, Maj. Gen. Bakwena Oitsile highlighted the importance of education to the trust.

He noted that they had made deliberate efforts to try and impact young people both at basic and tertiary education levels by assisting with their development.

Through this MoU, he said, they are once again restating their commitment to supporting education in Botswana by directly collaborating with the ministry.

He however asked other private entities to join hands in assisting government in education, adding that the trust would continue to help build a brighter educational future for the nation.

“Through this MOU, we are once again showing our commitment to actively promoting education in the country.

Matched with some of our already ongoing projects such as the Thomas Tlou Scholarship, which gave four young people an opportunity to expand their educational horizons through post graduate studies this year, he said.”

Giving a vote of thanks, acting director of basic education, Ms Rapelang Bogatsu said she was happy with the partnership as it would enable the beneficiaries to compete globally.

She noted that the assistance they continued to receive from the trust was an added advantage as this was also a relief to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

Likewise, she encouraged the schools to up their academic results so that they could win the P50 000 prize. ENDS