09 Oct 2023

Teachers have been called to look beyond the horizons of teaching and start viable economic projects that will improve living standards and significantly contribute to the country’s economic growth.

The call was made by Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry Ms Beauty Manake at the Selebi Phikwe sub-region teachers excellence awards recently.

Ms Manake also highlighted the need for teachers to drive change in the education sector in order to be part of the country’s transformation agenda.

“Beyond being a teacher, what can you do and what are the available opportunities?” quizzed Ms Manake, rhetorically requesting teachers to assess the opportunities available in the SPEDU region and start businesses.

She encouraged them not to confine themselves to teaching but to go on benchmarking trips to find out what was available for them, particularly in projects such as the citrus project and development of other value chains.

“Do not let people come from outside and take opportunities available. Our mindset has to change, A re chencheng,” she urged them.

Ms Manake further encouraged teachers to visit SPEDU to know the available opportunities and also visit business entities around Selebi Phikwe to appreciate what other people were doing as well as to see the value chains to participate in.

While she acknowledged that teachers were faced with a lot of challenges, the minister however emphasised that some of the issues could never be resolved by industrial action but rather by strengthening the government, organisations and trade unions tripartite.

“Strengthening the tripartite aids in overcoming the stereotypes of working poor that has been entrenched in the mindset for years,” she said.

Further, she said the country’s transformational agenda of becoming a high income economy by 2036 had been anchored on strong economic points created by the tripartite.

She added that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) currently stood at P192 billion with the intention to grow it to P459 billion by 2036.

She encouraged schools to procure their material from the SPEDU region which had been given the 30 per cent off-take incentive.

For her part, SPEDU’s manufacturing and industry development manager, Ms Kefilwe Motlhanke said the entity was a private company set up by government to facilitate development through investment promotion.

Ms Motlhanke said the SPEDU region, which covered five constituencies, focused on three economic sectors including  agriculture, tourism and manufacturing because they had the potential to unleash economic value of the region.

“It is important to invest in the agri-business because the SPEDU region has adequate water like Kwenantle farms, the citrus farm as one of the agri-businesses set up in the SPEDU region,” she said.

She added that there were other opportunities available in the area such as poultry, goat farming as well as dam tourism because of Letsibogo, Dikgatlhong and Thune dams.

“What can we do about these areas that could help create jobs and what can you develop that could make us different from other regions that could be a tourism attraction in this area?” she quizzed.

She indicated that the manufacturing sector was broad and therefore urged everyone to tap into the opportunity to create jobs.

She added that there were SPEDU incentives developed by government to benefit the manufacturing sector, among them the 30 per cent off-take and tax rebates.

She therefore urged schools to procure from local companies, saying the manufacturing sector required support in order to thrive.

For his part, Selebi Phikwe sub-region chief education officer, Mr Tshwarelo Hosea urged everyone involved in the teaching to ensure that every learner succeeded.

Mr Hosea said Selebi Phikwe had always been doing well because of strong leadership in schools.

“Schools in Selebi Phikwe have similar challenges to others around the country but were able to rise beyond those challenges and perform to their level best,” he said. ENDS