31 Mar 2021

The completion of the P88 000 one-roomed sickbay at St. Theresa primary school in Lobatse has been described as a milestone in provision of better first aid services to school’s community.

St. Theresa school head, Ms Goitsemang Molapong said this during the official opening of the sick bay by Mr Samuel Moipolai, who is the private secretary to the Minister of Finance and Economic Development and Lobatse MP, Dr Thapelo Matsheka.

Ms Molapong pointed out that they had the responsibility to promote health and safety within their premises.

“Availability of this facility will assist the school in providing first aid and resting place for the sick in our school,” Ms Molapong said.

She added that it would act as an isolation room for those awaiting medical attention, adding that the school would utilise the facility to provide health and safety services.

Ms Molapong said the school continued to face challenges such as shortage of classrooms, as well as lack of a computer laboratory and a modern kitchen.

She said their classrooms were built a long time ago and were small and posed a big challenge during these times of COVID-19 which required social distancing.

“We have two classrooms which can only accommodate 18 learners. This impacts negatively in our enrolment because we have to observe COVID-19 protocols,” she said.

Ms Molapong said the school currently had 465 learners. Despite the challenges, she said the school had continued to do well academically by scoring 83.3 per cent pass rate in the 2020 Primary School Leaving Examinations.

“That is our baseline, we hope to continue going up,” she said.

The school is run by St Theresa Catholic Church in partnership with the government.

Reverend Father Lawrence Pheto of St Theresa Catholic Church, who is also manager of the school, said the sick bay was built by the church.

“We took a decision to prioritise building of the sick bay in an effort to safe-guard lives of the learners,” he said.

He said construction of the building started in September last year and was completed in February. The Reverend said lockdowns and shortage of building materials caused some delays in the construction process.

He thanked the South East District education region for helping by providing bedding and washing amenities in the sick bay.

Through a statement read by his private secretary, finance minister Dr Matsheka expressed appreciation to the church leadership for contributing to provision of education in Botswana.

“The church valued education as a mode of holistic human development for mentality, intellectually, psychologically and spirituality. The Catholic church contributed for many years in the education of this beloved nation,” said the minister. ENDS