Many decades ago, our education system was founded and anchored on the spirit of community financing. The benign neglect of education by the colonial government gave our ever industrious people justification to take proactive measures to build and support schools.
Poverty was not used as an excuse to deter people from participating in the education affairs of their children.
Indeed, as the Bible states, where your treasure is, there will be your heart also. Before the government seriously took care of erecting the necessary school infrastructure, communities took the initiative to mobilise resources to set up schools.
The 1949 Moeng College project remains a shining example of the role and value of the spirit of community enterprise to the national building agenda. This was subsequently followed by the famed ‘one man one beast campaign’ where a proud and united people pooled their resources together to lay the foundation for Botswana’s first ever university.
Community financing was the backbone of our education system. Many decades ago, before the flourishing of the welfare state, the spirit of personal enterprise, which sadly waned with the passage of time, had reigned supreme in the country. On account of the strength of the spirit of personal enterprise, people seemed indifferent to the existence of government and never really looked to it for assistance.
The enterprising spirit took shape and thrived in the midst of trying economic circumstances. There were few job opportunities locally. But our people did not fold their arms. Young able bodied men left the country to seek opportunities in the mines, farms and factories in neighbouring South Africa. They needed to work for survival rather than depend on government handouts.
Toiling from the belly of the ground, under risky circumstances, they soldiered on to send money back not only to educate their children but also to shelter, clothe and feed their families. Our people in the midst of trouble have always been endowed with initiatives in stupendous proportions. Self help and not dependency on government has kept our nation going especially in the formative stages of our founding as a sovereign state.
Now we have a situation in our hands calling for the rekindling of the same spirit of resilience, patriotism and independent thinking, which characterised our people during our days of infancy as a nation. The matter is so urgent and compelling. This is the need to rehabilitate our public schools. Many looked up to the government for this to be done.
This is wrong. The state of our public schools cannot be entirely left in the hands of the government alone. Government can never assume the role of being the sole propriety and owner of schools. Schools and the education of our children are bigger than the government.
The infrastructure in many schools is less inspiring and therefore requires a swift and urgent response. In most cases, vandalism carried out by own children has been cited as the principal factor responsible for the appalling state of affairs in our schools.
It is our responsibility as the community to fix whatever our children have broken.
Many public schools no longer provide a fertile climate for good teaching and learning. Of course, government has a responsibility to lead the school rebuilding exercise but without a serious community support, this process of getting back our schools on track might be a long winded and protracted one. This is one process that should never wait because the education of our children cannot wait. Construction of road infrastructure, without necessarily watering down the value of good roads in our lives, could be postponed to a later date but no people could have that luxury when dealing with schools.
The present fiscus position of our country should motivate us to engage in a serious national dialogue on what we the people must do to rebuild our country in general and our education system in particular.
We should consider seriously the question of resuscitating the spirit of personal enterprise while relegating into the background the dependency syndrome on government and the expectation that government should do everything for us. The less privileged, sick and ill people should qualify for government support .
Extending government support to all people indiscriminately simply because they have Omang card can no longer be good economics or sustainable under present financial predicament. Some people have the means to take care of the education needs of their children or even extend their benevolent hands to help the less fortunate.
The government cannot do charity alone. Talking about the dangers of a welfare state, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said; “I think of the tragedies in which many of the benefits we give, which were meant to reassure people that if they were sick or ill, there was a safety net and there was help, that many of the benefits which were meant to help people who were unfortunate.... but somehow people are manipulating the system when people come and say, what is the point of working? I can get as much on the dole!”
Government’ s generosity and kindness could actually kill personal responsibility. Five decades ago, before the people surrendered their lives to an institution called government, our education system was proudly anchored on the spirit of personal enterprise.
Poor people would toil and labour somewhere in the name of raising school fees and buying uniform for their children. My father was never a man of means, he shunned, perhaps out of ignorance, the government bursary scheme. He was very much suspicious of government intentions and wanted to endeavour to take personal responsibility for the education of his children. Perhaps his fears were shared by many village folks because the uptake of the bursary scheme was not encouraging at the time.
He would say: “When placed under the care of government bursary scheme, upon completion of their studies our children would become the property of government. They would be forced to work and labour for the sole benefit of their sponsor (government) and not necessarily their parents.”
This is the impression that perhaps many had formed many years ago about the government bursary scheme.
But the bottom line was the burning desire to assume responsibility for one‘s family including taking care of the education needs of the children. It was never thought to be the duty of government to provide for everything that children needed to pursue their education.
Presently, the education of our children is at stake. This is not the time to expect schools to give out lucrative business to people. This is time to realise that our schools need us. Those who made profits in the past should team up with the communitites to resuscitate our ailing school system.
Schools need patriotic volunteers in almost every sphere of life.
If we seek quick revitalisation of the school system, builders, painters, carpenters, painters, teachers, tutors, engineer and others professionals should consider giving back to schools. Our sustainable future rests in having schools equipped to fulfill the purpose for which they were created - teach and teach well.
Any school falling short of providing good education has no justification to exist in the education landscape. Such schools should close shop because they are perpetuating poverty, unemployment, underemployment and other social ills.
