07 Mar 2021

 Energy Systems Group Company has handed a solar plant project at Khweosee Primary School in Somelo.

The P4 million project commissioned in May 2019 included, wiring and reticulation of eight staff houses, four classrooms, one toilet block, administration block, computer resource centre, kitchen and dining block.

Speaking during the handing over ceremony on Friday, North West District Council chairperson, Mr Kebareeditse Ntsogotlho, hailed the contractor for a job well done, despite challenges brought about by COVID-19.

Mr Ntsogotlho stated that the project would enhance effective teaching and learning as well as bridge the gap between pupils in urban areas and those in rural areas especially that access to technology was a priority for industrial revolution.

He further stated that though the council was committed to having projects delivered on time, they were at times failed by contractors.

Council secretary, Mr Motlogelwa Thuso, explained that the project was an initiative between the ministries of basic education and local government to ensure that schools far from services had access to electricity.

Electrification of remote areas, he said, was critical in supporting education from the grass roots because it enabled pupils in such places access to technology just like their counterparts in urban areas.

Maun Administrative Authority principal electrical engineer, Mr Daniel Hambuindja, stated that first phase started in 2012 and targeted electrification of school facilities in areas where there was the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) electrical grid.

Upon completion of the first phase, he said a second phase was initialised in 2015 whereby electrification of the school facilities was extended to areas where there was no BPC grid of which most of the schools were found in remote settlements.

Mr Hambuindja stated that seven primary schools in the North West District that included Gani, Chukumuchu, Habu, Qangwa, Nxauxau, Xaixai and Khweosee benefited from the initiative.Another five primary school facilities will be connected this year and they include Sankoyo, Mababe, Makakung, Khwai and Tsodilo with Mababe, Sankoyo and Makakung luckily to benefit from BPC grid.

“This development has caused us to suspend the installation of solar plant work component in these three schools and we have since transferred the plants to Tsodilo and Nxauxau,” Mr Hambuindja.

He noted that the Khweosee solar plant construction included the erection of module structures supporting 150 no of 330W polycrystalline solar panels.

Funds permitting, Mr Hambuindja stated that the current system might be upgraded to cater for additional load demands such as the clinic and government amenities not distant from the power generation plant.

Khweosee Primary School’s Ms Ketshwaneditswe Modisaemang said the school had been underperforming and hoped that the project would assist in turn things around.

She said they had computers and ipads which had been idle due to lack of electricity.

The school, which had an enrolment of 260 pupils, reportedly scored 50 per cent in the 2020 Primary School Leaving Examination. ends