21 Jan 2020

Mogale Junior Secondary School head, Mr Paul Cloete, has hailed Aqualogic company for renovating and equipping the school’s science laboratory at the tune of P70 000.

Speaking during a handing over of the refurbished lab recently in Maokane recently, Mr Cloete said this gesture would uplift the standard of education. 

He noted that the donation came at a time when the school had been without the science lab for quite a long time.

“The importance of science cannot be overemphasised. Botswana is among the countries that perform poorly in science and mathematics. Such renovation will help improve pupils performance in the field where highest paid jobs are found,” he said.

Mr Cloete said the school had an overall enrolment total of 971 pupils on a 24-stream and was over stretched with shortage of classes.

He noted that the school was impressed with the state of the art and equipment found in the lab.

Aqualogic managing director, Dr Monthei Lenkopane, said the company intended to help build and empower pupils.

“When Aqualogic decided to do something positive for the Jwaneng catchment area communities, we consulted with Debswana Corporate affairs to help us identify a need in the community and we eventually identified Mogale JSS,” he said.

He noted that they hoped many of the pupils would take the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects and begin a journey to a fulfilling career.

Dr Lenkopane noted that they specifically chose the science lab because science was close to their heart, with the understanding that Botswana was shifting gear from a resource-based to a knowledge based economy.

“There is abundant evidence that a knowledge economy is driven by innovation, which in turn is underpinned by science and technology. This underpinning demands that science should permeate every sphere of our lives as Batswana,” he said.Dr Lenkopane shared that in order to enhance science knowledge, there was no other best place to start than Mogale.

He, therefore, encouraged other business entities to recognise the impact that mining had on nearby communities, as per the principles of Debswana in striving to positively impact the communities they lived around.

Aqualogic was established in 1999 to solve complex geo-scientific problems primarily with the vision being the best geocience company in Botswana and beyond.

Dr Lenkopane then noted that Aqualogic had a staff complement that is 100 per cent Batswana, adding that, they employed locals because the company believed in Batswana and their abilities, hence their support to the school. ENDS