The long wait for school sport
Calistus Kolantsho | Saturday August 13, 2022 06:00
The report made recommendations on the suitable ways to run and manage school sport. The JTT carried out a comprehensive review of sports development and competition in schools.
Tapiwa Marobela-Masunga told Mmegi Sport that they submitted the report in December 2020, with recommendations on how to go about its implementation. “It is disheartening and disappointing to see that almost two years later there is no movement.
I feel COVID-19 will not have affected movement. Budgetary issues will not have affected some areas of implementation or to start the ball rolling on implementation. It is disheartening that there is no movement seeing that school sport has not started,” she said.
Marobela-Masunga said there were timelines with the implementations when they submitted the recommendations. However, she noted that it is up to the government to accept or reject the recommendations.
“As the Task Team, we have not received any feedback on the recommendations if any of them are not in order or not achievable. The main aim of the recommendation was the structural issues as to where school sport should be, who is taking over school sport and also discussions with teacher unions on where teachers stand in school sport,” she said.
Marobela-Masunga said teachers are the main stakeholders in school sport and they need to be capacitated to fully deliver the school sport mandate. “From my perspective, doing consultations in 2022 when the report was handed over in 2020 (sic), consultation is the first thing and doing it a year later I do not see the urgency in this matter. I do not know what was being done in 2021 for the consultation to start this year,” she said. Marobela-Masunga said they collected enough data and funding was never an issue.
“Everyone is wondering what is happening with school sport; are the recommendations taken or not taken, are we going to reverse to the way it was before or are the recommendations unrealistic to deliver. We do not know?” she added. The Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) CEO, Tuelo Serufho said consultations are still ongoing with some key stakeholders.
He said the ministries of Sport and Basic Education commissioned the Task Team and the report was handed to them. He said the role of the BNSC is merely to implement as directed by the sport ministry. “Indeed we would have loved learners to have been back on the field a long time ago, for we fully appreciate what they are missing. While it has taken some time, I hope we will conclude soon.
Of course, it is important that by the time we resume, all the issues are addressed so that we do not find ourselves back here again in the near future,” he said. Serufho added that they work closely with some members of the Task Force.