Kgakololo day care centre a sorry sight

KEABETSWE NEWEL
Correspondent | Friday December 10, 2010 00:00

Inside, the toilets look centuries old and are evidently a health hazard. Sympathy goes out to the little souls that use the open structures' mini hall as classrooms.

A German woman, who was a member of the Botswana Council of Women (BCW) is said to have founded the day care centre. She is said to have approached Somerset community elders to acquire a plot on which to erect a crche.

In 1979, the centre was constructed but the BCW failed to run it properly, prompting the Somerset community to intervene.

Currently the centre is under the management of its parent-teachers association (PTA).

Lovemore Banda, who grew up in Somerset, is now a police officer at Gerald Estates and chairs the PTA.

He said that as members of the Somerset community they had to step in to secure the future of their children.

'This centre was established to develop the lives of our children, but it is overwhelmed by many challenges which are retarding progress,' Banda lamented.

According to him, many developments were delayed because of the inefficiency of the BCW management team.

'Right now toilets are is a terrible mess, the council and health inspectors have long declared them unfit for use.

In fact, they are so old they are a health hazard to these young children; the school may even be closed because of its state,' he said.

According to him, teaching aids and books are also a challenge saying they only have one or two which teachers read from while kids have nothing to read.

Banda said that their wish - just as other pre-schools - was to knock off at 1630 hours from 0800 hours but they are compelled to knock off at midday since they do not have a kitchen.

'Somerset, as everybody knows, is a low income place. So, kids in this centre come from impoverished families hungry and expect to eat something at school, which we are unable to provide because of lack of resources.

'We do not have electricity in this school although we have made attempts to electrify it. I have however written a letter to the City Clerk requesting assistance,' he said. The Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) has also promised them computers, but may withdraw the offer because the centre has no electricity.

Banda said that children coming from economically crippled families must also have access to television and computers because they are essential for their academic development.

He also said that although the council trained their teachers, they were still underpaid. At times payment was delayed because they use the money they collect in school fees to pay wages.

'When we took over from the BCW we changed a lot of things. The cleaner, for example, was paid P460 which is below the government prescribed wage; I arranged for the cleaner to get over P560 which is his rate to date,' he said.

'We have written letters to several hardware dealers seeking assistance but we have not received any responses yet - not even replies confirming that they have received our letters,' Banda said.

The manager of the centre, who is also a teacher at the centre, Mpho Kebotse, said that as teachers they were underpaid.

'The fact that we are doing voluntary work is the only reason we held on to the jobs,' said Kebotse. She confirmed that although the school was founded by BCW, the PTA, consisting of the community elders, was now running the centre and the BCW had taken the back seat.