29 Oct 2025

A five-member team of aspiring robotics engineers from Kagiso Senior Secondary School in Ramotswa is in Panama City, South America, to take part in the ninth edition of the, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Global challenge.

The closely contested competition that started Wednesday and is expected to end Saturday, will see learners from over 190 countries converge in Panama for the annual event.

This year’s theme: Eco Equilibrium, challenges FIRST Global team of students to corroboratively innovate and maximise biodiversity and protect the incredible variety of life that sustains the planet.

Kagiso Robotics team mentor and computer science teacher, Mr Chidzani Matebu said the club, which was established in 2017, taught learners on how to build and programme robots.

“Our mandate is to teach children to corroborate and be independent decision makers. In robotics, the goal is to work together to achieve a common goal. We are catching them young which would help solve problems that could emerge from among others; political and religious differences and we teach them to think together,” said Mr Matebu.

He said the FIRST global challenge competition presented learners with pressing global challenges normally related to biological diversity and the balance to avoid extinction.

Mr Matebu said they taught all the problem solving through development of robots.

He said the robotics club strove to bring together youth from diverse backgrounds, cultures and experiences to inspire and motivate them to become leaders and innovators of the future.

“This competition would help learners address present global challenges while staying with current cutting edge technology,” he added.

Mr Matebu said since its inception the club had already taken part in global challenges in the United States, Mexico, Dubai, Switzerland, Singapore and Greece last year.

The Kagiso robotics team gave an inspiring performance at the 2024 challenge in Singapore scooping position one in Africa and became number 26 out of more than 190 countries that took part in the global event.

In an interview one of the lead engineers of the developed robot prototype and Form 4 pupil, Boago Setilo said they were excited about the opportunity to take part in the competition.

Boago said they were happy about the chance to showcase what they had designed and said they were mostly encouraged by competing with learners from across the world especially those from technologically advanced countries in Europe, Americas and Asia.

The global challenge is an Olympic style international robotics competition that takes place annually.

Each country sends a team to build and programme a robot to compete.

The mission is to inspire leadership and innovation in young persons by empowering them through education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. ENDS