08 Aug 2023

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development is challenged to maintain schools, classrooms and teacher accommodation mainly due to financial limitations, says Minister Douglas Letsholathebe.

However, he said, all secondary schools had maintenance votes geared to cater for minor maintenance at school level although the budgets were inadequate. He said schools had craft improver personnel who carried out minor repairs, adding that Chichi Junior Secondary School had recently undergone cyclic maintenance.

“For any new maintenance the school can be assisted from the P100 000 assigned to the school at the region,” he said. He said Maraka Junior Secondary School had requested for P22 000 to top up the P23 000 they had to complete the electrification of classrooms. He added that Maraka was one of the schools prioritised for cyclic maintenance as funds permitted.

Minister Letsholathebe also said teacher accommodation at Maraka Junior Secondary School consisted of 26 staff houses and that only one house was shared.

He said 14 teachers had opted to seek accommodation elsewhere on none sharing basis in the surrounding villages, mostly in Kanye and Lobatse.

He further said at Chichi Junior Secondary School, there were 34 staff houses in the school and two in Lobatse, adding that three houses were occupied on a sharing basis.

He noted that there were 22 teachers who were not accommodated in the institutional houses who had opted to seek accommodation elsewhere.

As for Boiteko Junior Secondary School, Dr Letsholathebe said, there were 17 staff houses of which four were occupied on sharing basis, with nine staff members having sought accommodation elsewhere.He said his ministry targeted for teachers to stay in a school for five years, however, he said due to some other reasons teachers tended to stay longer.

He said reasons included requests by teachers to stay whilst others were due to work commitments, adding that where possible they transferred teachers as per their requests and within five years.

The Member of Parliament for Kanye North, Mr Thapelo Letsholo, had asked the minister to appraise Parliament on the status of both primary and junior schools in Ranaka, Lotlhakane, Molapowabojang and Moshana. ends