Mokoboxane teachers catch ride to toilets

Chakalisa Dube | Thursday July 10, 2014 14:39

It usually comes to that situation when it is full house inside the tiny ablution facility within the school’s administration block and a hard-pressed teacher needs to dash to answer the call of nature.

School head, Francinah Masole made public the school’s poor learning and working conditions at the official ground-breaking event of three classrooms and administration blocks donated by Debswana’s Orapa, Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines on Tuesday.

Located 77 kilometres away from Letlhakane, Mokobaxane is among the poorest villages in the Boteti Sub-District.

The spectre of living in squalid circumstances also haunts students as most classes from standard one to four are taught under trees.

There are only two classrooms to accommodate learners of lower level primary, meaning a majority of them spend their lesson periods under trees.

Though the exact number of teachers was not readily availed on Tuesday, apparently, teachers have to squeeze themselves into the administration block which is so small it cannot accommodate teachers’ ablution facilities.

“At times we are forced to drive to the toilets which are a distance within the school because there are no ablution facilities in the administration block.

“The administration block is also so small that it cannot accommodate all teachers,” said Masole.

She said the deputy school head even operates without an office to run school errands.

The headmaster said that it is very likely that she will soon be sharing her house with another teacher as a result of acute lack of accommodation.

Nineteen teachers currently share accommodation at the school, which performed averagely in last year’s Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE).

It is however common in most schools across the country for teachers to be sharing accommodation.

It also later emerged that the school’s kitchen is not fully functional with only one of the two pots used for preparing student meals.

On hearing this, the acting Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mokgweetsi Masisi gave a tongue lashing to council officials, demanding that they fix the out-of-service pot “right now”.

Masisi also had a go at the senior council officials led by Boteti Sub-District Senior Assistant Council Secretary Motshwariemang Matseka, when he was told that some desks had been discarded with a view to auctioning them to the public, though they seemed repairable.

When the minister demanded why they were not being repaired, he did not get a reasonable response.

“You are wasteful.

“When we want to borrow money abroad we are labelled wasteful because of the way we spend money on unnecessary things (referring to buying instead of repairing the desk),” said Masisi.

A visibly furious Masisi also accused council officials of incompetence after he found that some of the machines used for administration purposes have been lying idle at the school.

Thankfully Debswana has come to the school’s rescue.

Debswana’s OLDM has donated P2.4 million that will be used to construct three classrooms and an administration block.

It is anticipated that the project would have been completed in five months.