Monkge's savingram shocks schools sports bodies
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday October 12, 2018 12:21
Monkge wrote to schools before his dismissal that teachers can only be involved in sports as volunteers, and they will not be remunerated for overtime, except, subsistence allowance for nights out, when they travel with pupils and students.
“The ministry does not have sufficient budget to sustain all of these activities. Subsequently from January 2019, the club activities undertaken will be on volunteer basis,” read Monkge’s letter.
It further states that it will be up to the teacher to decide whether or not to travel with students on the understanding that they will not incur overtime. Botswana Integrated Sports Association (BISA) president, Joshua Gaotlhobogwe said they have not received the statement.
“We learnt that the communication was sent to schools. We have not met the ministry to discuss the issue or they have not invited us,” he said.
Gaotlhobogwe said the ministry had given them an assignment to look at how best they can run school sport. He said the ministry set up a task team, but in the process, without its input, a decision was reached. “It is confusing but we can discuss it after we meet with them. Teachers would decided on the way forward at our (BISA) upcoming annual general meeting,” he said.
Gaotlhobogwe said the ministry once informed them that it was expensive to run school sport as they do not have budget for it. He said BISA had made suggestions to the ministry to approach their counterparts at the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development for cost sharing.
“They said their responsibility is academics. It cannot be heard of that school sport has been stopped. We cannot do that. In the past, they have always engaged us on issues but this time around we were overlooked,” he said.
Gaotlhobogwe said there is trepidation at the January 2019 deadlines. Botswana Primary Schools Sports Association (BOPSSA) president, Busani Segweni said the task team that was set up has collapsed. The team was made up of three BISA representatives, three from BOPSSA while four were from MoBE. “The task team should have Ministry of Local Government. It collapsed before it could start its job,” he said.
Segweni said the gap amongst the three ministries could only be closed if primary education is removed from Local Government. He said Local Government does not offer much when it comes to sport, but only feed and transport students for sport trips.
MoBE acting permanent secretary, Simon Coles said they want to continue supporting school sport.
“In doing so, we have requested BISA and BOPSSA to come up ways with ways in which we can approach school sport,” he told Mmegi Sport.
Coles admitted that Monkge’s savingram has not been forwarded to BISA and BOPSSA. He said it would be impossible for the decision to be implemented by the January deadline. He said they are still waiting for feedback from the two sports bodies.