Bokamoso Junior Students Leave For Scotland

NNASARETHA KGAMANYANE
Correspondent | Monday June 17, 2013 00:00

There, the 16 Bokamoso students, ranging from Form One to Form Three students, will exchange academic and cultural experiences with Lossiemouth High School students.The students are accompanied by four teachers, their Parents Teachers Association (PTA) chairperson and the project's coordinator, who is also a teacher at Bokamoso, Unangoni Tagwa.

Tagwa commended parents for supporting their children by paying P10,000 for their air tickets. He also thanked the general parent's body for their endless support.He expressed particular gratitude towards the British Council for their support and funding. It funded the partnership with P14,400, which was divided between the two schools giving each school P 7,200.

He said in 2010, Lossiemounth students came to Botswana to interact with their students, attend class and learn the Setswana culture. While visiting Bokamoso students in 2010, the merged student body became known as Scotswana; together they donated clothes and other items to the needy in Old Naledi. Tagwa said once in Scotland, his students could expect to embark on similar endeavors.'This trip does not mean that we are going on vacation.'It will be normal school days as our students will attend school and get a chance to interact and exchange their knowledge with those from Lossiemounth.

'We are going there as ambassadors, so there will be many activities on the table as they will be teaching us their culture whilst we do the same,' he announced to the parents and community members gathered there to bid them farewell.Tagwa said that they will bring back the examination papers and curriculum used in Scotland and they intend to implement it and see if it works for their students. He said this might help develop teaching skills in the country.Bokamoso is one of the 20 schools in Botswana that has benefitted from this initiative funded by the British Council.British Council Country Director, Nobantu Kalake, said the partnership started in 2007 when Donnie Carthew, Deputy Head of Lossiemouth High School, visited Botswana at the invitation of Department of Vocational Education and Training (DVET) on behalf of the Scottish Qualification Authority.

Once here, he proposed the Global Partnership with one of the schools in Botswana.'In all the schools he was given, including private schools, he chose Bokamoso Junior looking at the school profile and a partnership was born,' she said. Students from Lentswe and Kgafela primary schools in Mochudi will be leaving next week for Scotland, while Gaborone International School students have already left.