- Believes that they should be played at the same period
- Duo also hoping to resume school sport soon
- Constituency tournaments will not stop in favor of school sports
TLOTLO KEBINAKGABO
The Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development (MYESCD) and that of Basic Education (MoESD) are in talks for the athletics and ball sport competitions to take place at the same period (terms), Gazette Sport can reveal.
The athletics competitions have been taking place in the first term with the ball sports competitions following in the second term. That , however, might be history in the near future according to the Minister of MYESCD Tumiso Rakgare. He said this at his Ministry media briefing held in Gaborone yesterday (Monday).
“We believe that the athletics and ball sport competitions should not be separated in schools. We should try our best as the Ministry in collaboration with that of Basic Education to see if the competitions cannot take place at the same time in the first and second term,” he said. “We believe that school sport is important for our country as we are not doing enough to develop talent at a tender age , so we see school sport vital in helping us to curb that so we should be able to compete internationally.”
According to Rakgare, conversations between the two Ministries have already begun and the duo have agreed to set up a task team to explore the school sport matter further. “ We already have experts in grassroots development in Botswana and they will help on the matter. This is nothing complex as our sport people know what has to be done,” he said. To him, if the competitions can be merged, they will at the same time cut costs for the government.
Meanwhile, the Minister responsible for sport went on to note that there is a possibility that school sport might proceed in the second term as the government deem sport important. “School sport has to continue, we have to help so that teachers can be paid and after that we have to look for more money so that the sport can proceed,” he stated.
MoESD took a decision to stop school sport earlier this month as teachers are being owed P32 million. When asked if the constituency tournaments cannot be stopped in favor of schools sport, Rakgare responded; “We don’t have a position to comment on that now but we are going to meet very soon over the constituency sport tournaments. This is not because we want to stop them but to see how we can engage experts in running them.”
Rakgare further, used the press briefing to keep on reminding that school sport competitions is the responsibility of his Ministry and that of Basic Education. He nevertheless, noted that conversations for MYESCD to take part in school sports are in place. “We have been in conversations with Basic Education as they want us to help , we are ready to engage and if we agree we will go on. We are sports people and we want to assist were possible. We want the students to be given the right skills at a tender age.”