24 Feb 2022

Plans for the construction of an estimated P80 million primary school in Letlhakane are at an advanced stage.

Boteti district officer for development, Ms Patience Fanikiso said recently when briefing Boteti Sub-council in Letlhakane that P25 million would go towards the construction of teachers quarters while the bulk of the money would go towards other school buildings.

Designs of the school, she said, were ongoing at Central District Council headquarters and some classroom blocks would be double stories for optimal land use.

She also indicated that Ramps would be available for people living with disabilities, adding that geo-technological and topographical surveys were done in November last year.

The surveys, she said, would inform the structural designs, adding that both surveys were complete and the reports had been sent to headquarters.

The tender for construction of staff housing was at evaluation stage while documentation for construction by quantity surveyors’ consultants was ongoing at the time of reporting.

Ms Fanikiso indicated that the 25 schools in Boteti had an enrollment of 14 851 in quarter three, which comprised 930 reception pupils and 47 special education pupils.

Twenty foreign pupils, she said, were registered and all of them paid their school fees amounting to P4 000.

She noted that the sub-district had a total of 374 classrooms available, but had a shortage of 29 classrooms for the enrollment registered.

Furthermore, Ms Fanikiso stated that Bofinet was currently undertaking a major project that involved supply and installation of  fiber network cables to government departments.

The main contractor is Dimension Data, who had since sub-contracted Newline Technologies.

The project, she said, commenced in July 2021 and was estimated to be completed in November the same year, but had a revised completion date of March 2022.

The revision of the completion date was caused by the delayed supply of special equipment from America and United Kingdom due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As mitigation, the organisation has strengthened teams on-site to catch up with time at no additional cost.

At the time of reporting the project was at 65 per cent progress. Ends