President Duma Gideon Boko is expected to launch the long-awaited school sport and arts in schools at Lobatse Sports Complex tommorow. School sport in government schools were suspended by the previous government in 2019, primarily due to a standoff between teachers and the Ministry of Basic Education regarding allowances for coaching duties.
Whilst the suspension was initially presented as a temporary measure due to budgetary constraints, it has persisted, impacting talent development and Botswana's sporting legacy. Teachers unions, the Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) and the Botswana Teachers Union (BTU), have expressed shock about the launch of school sport and arts before reaching an agreement with the government. BTU president, Agang Gabana told SportMonitor that he received the launch invitation on Saturday whilst the event is on Tuesday. “We are surprised that school sport is being launched when we have not reached an agreement with the government. The proposal that we submitted was a compromise. As teachers unions, we have long sent a proposal to the Ministry of Sport and Arts, only for them to engage us four weeks ago, via a virtual meeting. During the meeting, they told us that there were some things that they agreed with and those that they did not agree with in our proposal. We requested that they put the response in writing but that did not happen,” Gabana said.
BOSETU secretary-general, Tabokani Rari said they are not aware of what is going to be launched. “We have not been consulted, negotiations never started as we only shared proposals. Teachers have no idea what is going to be launched. Maybe the government will engage people from outside teaching, we do not know. It seems our proposal has been ignored as we do not know what is being launched,” said Rari. Meanwhile, SportMonitor is also informed that National Sport Associations (NSA) were also not consulted and the majority of them might not attend the launch except football and athletics. Ministry of Basic Education and Child Welfare has now taken over school sport and arts.
Meanwhile, Botswana Basketball Association (BBA) president, Mothusi Thipe said he was not aware of the guidelines of the implementation of school sport. “We were involved at Sport Pitso and we made recommendations but before the launch, they have not provided a guideline on how it is going to be done. If they are implementing it, as per the NSAs recommendations, then it means we were engaged so we have to wait and see. Maybe this week they will communicate,” Thipe said.
