the monitor

The curious case of the Box School

In Gaborone, they say a new school has been built. Normally, this would be cause for celebration — ribbon cutting, speeches, maybe even a choir of children singing about the bright future ahead or perhaps Vee and Charma Gal serenading the crowd.

But as usual, there are those who criticise. Some unionists have banded together and declared, with great conviction, that the school is made of boxes. Yes, boxes. Not bricks, not mortar, not steel beams. Boxes. Now, most of us are sitting here with our heads spinning. How can a school be made of boxes? Did someone raid the back of a supermarket and decide to stack banana cartons into classrooms? And most importantly, what happens when it rains? Will the Standard 5 classroom float away like a soggy cereal packet? The unionists, of course, are serious. They even called a meeting to announce to the citizens that the school is nothing more than a glorified warehouse of cardboard.

One can imagine the scene: a stern-faced spokesperson, pounding the table, declaring, ‘Comrades, our children are being educated in boxes!’ The crowd gasps. Someone faints. Another whispers, ‘But... what if it’s true?’

Editor's Comment
Block 6 shopping complex, a crime hotspot

“Try a crime you end a criminal,treat an environment you end crime.”– Abhijit Naskar, Sleepless for SocietyWhat should be a vibrant entertainment hub has instead become an area where people increasingly fear for their safety.Hardly a weekend passes without reports of people losing their valuables, vehicles being broken into or stolen, revellers being assaulted and injured, and, in the most tragic cases, people being attacked with sharp...

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