Kutlwano Magazine

Kgatleng\'s Headaches

Source : Kutlwano

Author : Kwapeng Modikwe

Location : Mochudi

Event : Feature Article

Article and Photos: Kwapeng Modikwe

The original school was built in 1903 atop a small hill opposite the Dutch Reformed Church Mission buildings. It was the first educational facility in the village since the arrival of the morafe from South Africa in 1871.

Three years earlier, in 1900, the Dutch Reformed Church had provided some kind of education which taught pupils religious knowledge only. Classes were conducted under the guidance of a lady called Deborah Retief, after whom the present local hospital is named because she was, really, a Florence Nightingale of Mochudi.

Now that was during the days when the architects of apartheid regarded black people as superfluous appendages. By that time, Bakgatla were still hostile to the Boers and they considered the type of education the church offered inferior and therefore wanted it replaced with a more meaningful one. Early education in the Kgatleng District is well captured by Amos Kgamanyane in Botswana Notes and Records.

He was a respected royal who began school at the age of 20 in 1908. He was also a member of the council of elders who ruled Bakgatla in the absence of the Kgosi during World War II. Writing in Botswana Notes and Records, he says the idea was that “kaffirs” must learn to “read God`s word but if they learn to write, it might lead them to think that they are as good as their teachers.”

That was in 1900. So, with the help of a certain Jacobs Stoffbech, an educationist from the Cape, the church started an Englishmedium primary school to appease Bakgatla.

Controversy surrounded the school as the church`s headquarters in the Cape remained opposed to its establishment. It was not clear why they opposed it but legend has it that the opposition was political as the school was started immediately after the Boer War. Bakgatla under Kgosi Lentswe I. had taken part in the war against the Boers.

At one point they attacked a Boer laager at Derdepoort, killing 40 of their soldiers. Despite such a strong opposition from the master`s voice, the local church went ahead with the school`s operation.

However, continuation of such a school did not appease Bakgatla. They demanded a fundamental change in the organisation of educational services. Quarrels between missionaries and the morafe over the type of education offered reached a boiling point one day when the Reverent Murray insisted that he was there “as a missionary to teach Kgatla people the word of God, not the wisdom of the world”. On the contrary, Bakgatla themselves wanted their children taught the wisdom of the world.

They wanted “worldly subjects like arithmetic” which the missionaries conveniently avoided to be included in the syllabus. The attitude of the missionaries strengthened the morafe`s resolve to do away with the system of education which they considered undesirable.

Kgamanyane put it in simple terms, “there was a desire to have a school of our own”. Out of that desire, a school was built on top of a small hill opposite the missionaries` homes and it was named Lentswe School (Hill School). Kgosi Lentswe I sent men and women to cut grass at the foot of hills in Gaborone and availed his ox-wagon as transport. With that the community through voluntary service built a thatched block comprising two classrooms.

Someone has since unwisely replaced it instead of preserving it as a symbol of the struggle for pure education in Kgatleng. Legend says a few years after its completion the community “thought it wise to rename” it after their Kgosi. Lentswe means the voice. By so doing, they showed appreciation for the role he played in its construction.

Interestingly, the spelling of the school`s name remained unchanged. Only the meaning and the pronunciation changed. It remained a block of two classrooms for many years until sometime in the 1950s when a block of five classrooms roofed with corrugated iron sheets was built next to the existing block.

However, when the new Kgosi, Linchwe II, corrected the spelling of his name that of the school was also corrected. As the population increased, the demand for more classrooms also increased.

By 1967 when government took over educational responsibility from the merafe, it was already becoming clear that the site of the school was inadequate as there was no space for future expansion. legend has it that the opposition was of a political nature as the school was started immediately after the Boer War. Bakgatla under Kgosi Lentswe I, had taken part in the war against the Boers.

Furthermore, there were no playing grounds for pupils. It was for this reason that the Kgatleng District Council built a new school, behind the Manamakgote hills replacing the old one.

The school opened in 2012. Built with red facebricks, the new school is one of few modern primary school buildings ever built for Mochudi, the first being Ntshinoge and Kgabosereto primary schools. Looking at the new Linchwe Primary School building from a distance, one gets the impression that everything is as impressive as the building itself.

However, a conversation with Kgabele Monau, head of department at the school, Mpho Mogomotsi, chairman of the school`s Hendymen Committee, Kgomotso Rabotsoma, vice chairperson of the school`s Parents Teachers Association (PTA) and Boikanyo Seitseng responsible for guidance and counselling, the opposite emerges.

The school is underutilised. While it was built As a result parents sent their children to other schools such as Isang and Mmusi. By the time the school was built, the land board had allocated new 500 plots in the Dinkgwana and Maferesi areas, says Mogomotsi. It was hoped that by the time the school opened the plot owners would have built homes and send their children to the school. However, things did not work as expected. Only a few built homes while the majority have not because there was no water in the area.

He says faced with the challenge, the school authorities approached Water Utilities Corporation about the issue last November. The corporation promised to install temporary prepaid standpipes in the area to enable people to have access to water. The corporation is yet to erect the standpipes.

In as much as the school has few pupils, the PTA would like to see the children participate in school sport. Speaking on behalf of the PTA Rabatsoma is unhappy at the fact the school did not have playing grounds.

“It is as if we are still at the old school where pupils travelled 2km to the Mochudi Rovers playing grounds”, she says. She says they have been told there are no funds. Council officials did not anticipate that the area reserved for playing grounds would be rocky and would need sophisticated machinery to clear the site, they have been told.

As a result, she says, officials at the council did not take that into account when budgeting.

“As we speak, our children can`t play”, says Rabatsoma adding, “what they can do is to run around but cannot take part in any meaningful sporting activity”. Had the council conducted soil inspection prior to the opening of the school, we would be talking a different story,” she to cater for 800 pupils, it had only 199 in 2012, says Monau. This year the roll has slightly increased to 245.

She says this is so because when the school moved from the old premises, a number of parents, most of whom hailed the relocation move when it was first mooted, now cite distance from their homes to the school and security for their children since the school was located in the bush as some of their concern.

As if that is not enough, access to the school is a problem as children have to cross Molapo-wa baruti enroute to the school. Both the PTA and the Handymen Committees have suggested that a culvert be constructed urgently across the stream to facilitate access to the school.

The school has been relocated at an ideal area. Next to it is the Bakgatla Bolokang Matshelo, a nongovernmental organisation whose responsibility is, among others, to cater for the needy.

It is with this organisation that a guidance and counselling teacher at the school, Boikanyo Reitseng, has established rapport. This has enabled the organisation to interact with standard six and seven pupils Thursdays and Fridays to discuss peer pressure, teenage pregnancy and gender violence issues.

On the other side of the school, there is to be a huge game park belonging to the district council. The area has since been allocated by the land board to the council but nothing has happened so far. The idea is that the council will translocate wildlife into the park to

promote tourism in the district. Not far from the school premises, is a plot for the construction of nurses` home or a new hospital. If that dream becomes a reality, the school will cater for a large population.

Councillor for the area, Elijah Mogomotsi, has been talking to relevant authorities about various issues affecting the school including security matters. He says the police in Mochudi are working hard to police the area through cluster policing.

They are also toying with the idea of providing a caravan for the police either within the school premises or its vicinity. There has been a series of rape cases in the school`s surroundings in the last 12 months. In one case, a serial rapist attacked an employee of the school in day light while the latter was on her way home from work. The culprit raped another woman in the vicinity of the school also in day light.

A government employee who had been renting one of the unutilised teachers` quarters was raped by an intruder who broke into her bedroom during the night while an elderly woman overpowered a man who attempted to rape her during the day in the school`s catchment area.

The would be rapist got away only with the woman`s cellular phone. The cases may justify parents` concern about security for their children when travelling through the bush to the school.

Meanwhile, Councillor Mogomotsi has allayed fears that the old school buildings will become a white elephant and a heaven for criminals. He says the council has plans for the utilisation of the old school building by interested parties to ensure that it does not remain idle.

He says the facility will be leased out to the Kgatleng District Development Foundation which will in turn lease it out to interested parties on behalf of the council. Priority will be given to council and central government departments.

Already, departments of district administration and roads have applied for accommodation at the old school buildings. However, before this can be done, the council will require close to P1 million for the maintenance of the building. ENDS