We never proposed P200m for school sport – Unions
Calistus Kolantsho | Sunday December 24, 2023 12:42
During last weekend’s AGM, the BNSC told its affiliates that the unions were proposing a budget of P200 million in their talks with government, in order to restart school sports.
At the AGM, BNSC CEO, Tuelo Serufho, told delegates that the Commission had submitted a proposal to the unions committing P40 million to school sport.
He said in return the unions submitted three proposals of which the cheapest was P200 million.
However, speaking to Mmegi Online, Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) secretary general, Tobokani Rari said the union is wondering what could be behind the allegation that they are demanding P200 million. He described the allegation as “outrageous and completely weird”. “I am completely lost unless they want to push a narrative that would justify their avoidance of teachers’ involvement,” he said. “We had a meeting with Permanent Secretary at Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Kitso Kemoeng, and he disowned the proposal that we got from his Ministry.
“The discussions collapsed. “The Minister tried to resuscitate the discussions and assigned the Deputy Permanent Secretary but no further meeting was held.”
For his part, the Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare, said it pains him that a lot that years later, very little traction has been made towards restoring sport in public schools.
School sports in public schools were suspended in 2019 when the Ministry of Basic Education owed teachers allowances of around P30 Million.
The situation prompted the Ministry to ask government for a bail out in order to pay the teachers.
During the process, a School Task Team was set up and mandated to come up with a model that would make it easier to run school sports with lower costs. The task team submitted a report to government in December 2022.
“We have had a lot of engagements with a lot of stakeholders, including Unions whose proposed options are unaffordable to the Ministry,” Rakgare said. “Most recently there have been ongoing negotiations between the teacher structures, Department of Public Service Management, and other entities, which we hope will result in something more tangible in early 2024.”