Back in 2020, the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development together with the Ministry of Basic Education established a joint team to make recommendations on the way forward regarding school sport. The task team handed the report to the government in 2020, but key recommendations outside teachers’ allowances are not in place.
The recommendations called for a policy change. The team recommended that physical activity time should be scheduled in the curriculum to be delivered across all schools in Botswana, for all children to receive a minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity, three times per week.
“As part of the talent development pathway, National Sport Associations (NSA) should play a more prominent role in talent identification by scouting from the early stages of school sport competitions and providing appropriate competitive and talent development opportunities, including programmes during school holidays through local youth sport structures and local community sports clubs,” the report reads in part.
The task team recommended that there should be one organisation responsible for organising school sports competitions at the primary and secondary school levels. “In order to streamline operations, reduce duplications, improve efficiency and reduce costs associated with delivering school sports competitions, the Botswana Integrated Sport Association (BISA) and the Botswana Primary School Sports Association (BOPSSA) need to become one body and have a new school sports national governing body that operates on a full time basis,” the report reads.
The task team recommended that since the establishment of a full-time structure can be a lengthy process, in the interim, and for a maximum of 12 months, organisation and management of school sports competitions can be delegated to the MYSC district offices along with the zonal coordinators and committees of BISA/BOPSSA. But BISA public relations officer, Letsweletse Jonas said BISA remains active. “BISA is an entity registered with the Registrar of Societies and other international organisations.
It cannot just be dismantled easily, it is a constitutional body. The recommendations of merging BISA and BOPSSA are far from being implemented. It is only after that we will know what they are thinking,” he said. Jonas said for the organisation that has been recommended to function, consultation must be done first. He said they are currently in possession of BISA property and no handing over has been done, even at BOPSSA. Jonas said none of the recommendations by the task team has been implemented to date. He added that as things stand, school sport remains a far-fetched dream. BNOC CEO, Tuelo Serufho said to his knowledge, BISA and BOPSSA have not merged, noting that they were a creation of the Ministry of Basic Education, which he said has reportedly withdrawn its mandate. “Of course, the two structures also have a life as societies and within which context it is only them that can cause a merge as the BNSC would not have authority,” Serufho said. He said for now Physical Education (PE) remains a curricula subject and they are expected to submit a paper soon to the Ministry of Education for the subject to be made compulsory.
