the monitor

Gov't, teachers must unite for school sport

Today’s launch of school sport and arts in Lobatse should be a moment of national celebration, a long-overdue end to a five-year drought that has starved young talent and diminished Botswana’s sporting future.

Instead, it risks becoming an exercise in empty symbolism, undermined by the government’s baffling refusal to properly consult the very people essential for its success: teachers and their unions. President Duma Boko’s initiative is welcome. The suspension of these vital programmes in 2019, initially blamed on budget woes but rooted in a standoff over fair allowances for teacher-coaches, has done untold damage.

Restoring them is the right thing to do. However, the manner of this relaunch is profoundly ill-advised and threatens to derail it before it even begins.

Editor's Comment
No job offer is worth risking becoming traffickers’ prey

“Desperate people do desperate things”– Michael BrooksHowever, this desperate pursuit of employment comes with its own negative outcomes. Therefore, Batswana must guard against becoming easy targets for human traffickers, labour exploiters and other transnational criminal networks that prey on vulnerable job seekers.Numbers don’t lie. The recent revelation by the Botswana Police Service that 22 Batswana have been reported missing after...

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