Concern over slow School Sport negotiations
Calistus Kolantsho | Monday August 17, 2026 06:00
Despite the negotiations dragging on, school sport was relaunched in 2025, but failed to take off.
Speaking to MmegiSport, BOSETU lead negotiator Moffat Bagani revealed the parties were scheduled to meet on Tuesday, but the meeting did not take place after the BTU team became engaged in the afternoon.
The meeting had initially been scheduled for 8am, but the team from the ministry requested that it be postponed to the afternoon.
Their request for postponement was due to the unavailability of the Minister of Sport and Arts, Jacob Kelebang, and the Assistant Minister of Child Welfare and Basic Education, Justin Hunyepa.
“At 3pm, the BTU team was also engaged. We have given the reference team a mandate to complete the task,” Bagani said.
“The team is made up of permanent secretaries from the two ministries, the BTU and BOSETU presidents, and the secretaries-general from the two unions. The way things are going, I do not think the negotiations will be concluded this year.”
Meanwhile, in 2020, BTU and BOSETU were invited to participate in the Joint Task Team on School Sport (JTTSS) and made submissions.
Both unions were not opposed to the restructuring of school sport, but unfortunately, the task team did not address the issue of remuneration for educator-coaches.
In October 2021, BOSETU and BTU met and responded to the JTTSS recommendations. The unions’ counter-proposal was submitted to the then Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture Development (MYSC). However, the ministry did not respond to the counter-proposal.
According to the background document on the negotiation process, in July 2023, MYSC sent a new proposal to both unions on how school sport should be resumed.
The then-ministry proposed that only four sporting codes, athletics, football, volleyball and netball, be administered at primary schools, with only two coaches participating per code.
At secondary school level, the ministry proposed that only athletics, boxing, football, netball and volleyball be administered.
The proposal also included a once-off P2,000 allowance for stages one and two of the competitions, as well as P300 per day at national level. MYSC further proposed allowances of P100, P150, and P200 per stage for technical officials.
“Both unions made a counter-proposal as follows: all those taking part in school sport should be paid in accordance with the Employment Act in relation to overtime; 15% of the basic salary for all those taking part in school sport; or a fixed P1,500 monthly allowance.
“In May 2024, MYSC sent another proposal on the resumption of school sport. They proposed that there be four sporting codes at primary schools, while secondary schools would only be allowed to participate in five sporting codes,” the document reads.
The current proposal from the Ministry of Sport and Arts, which was submitted to the unions in February, is for school sport to resume, with coaches being compensated at P625 per day and technical officials receiving P200 per day.
Under the proposed competition model, the structure would also change from the previous format, with competitions taking place at district, regional, and national levels.