24 Mar 2019

Nokaneng Primary School in Ngamiland is said to be one of the schools hard hit by shortage of stationery.

This was revealed during a kgotla meeting addressed by Ngami MP, Mr Thato Kwerepe in Nokaneng recently. 

The situation is said to have been going on for a long time now, something which might affect performance of both teachers and pupils.

On a similar issue, one Ms Tsaone Keneilwe complained about the excessive corporal punishment on children by some teachers at the school. She therefore pleaded with the authorities to take such teachers to task.

In response, chief education officer, Ms Goitsemodimo Elias said it was against education policies for teachers to apply corporal punishment at schools.

She further said children could be punished in a reasonable manner, adding that it was even wrong for teachers to beat up those children that have difficulties in grasping concepts in class.

As for shortage of books, Ms Elias indicated that procurement would start in April.

On other issues, villagers complained about the continued shortage of water in Nokaneng, noting that Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) was dismally failing them.

Kgosi Kebonyetsala Fish said during the time when the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) was responsible for water services, water supply was much better, hence services should be given back to tDWA.

However, an official from WUC in Gumare, Mr Nelson Morotsi blamed some of the corporation’s failures on vandalism of its infrastructure in Nokaneng.

He said the corporation was also faced with challenges such as shortage of transport to promptly and efficiently execute their duties.

Area councillor, Mr Jansen Kazombongo also expressed concern over the prevalent vandalism of WUC infrastructure in the village.

He said some villagers destroyed WUC chambers to water their livestock. Mr Kwerepe said there were boreholes in the periphery of Nokaneng and therefore encouraged farmers to group themselves and identify some to water their livestock. ends