Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) through its CSI Policy, The Dipoelo Programme, has adopted Kareng Primary School in Ngamiland District and Metsimantsho Primary School in Ghanzi District for a period of three years under the Government driven Adopt-a-School initiative effective 1st January, 2021.
In May 2020, the BSE floated an Expression of Interest inviting all Government Primary Schools to submit proposals requesting for adoption. From this exercise, the BSE received sixty (60) proposals from Government Primary Schools across all the districts in the country.
From those submissions, the BSE facilitated thorough needs assessment of each school based on the number of students, pass rate, location and school priorities and identified the two (2) schools. The Adopt-a-School initiative was introduced by the Government of Botswana to facilitate Public/Private sector participation in the delivery of quality education across the country.
The adoption of the two (2) schools comes after the adoption of Kanngwe Primary School by the BSE came to an end after a 3-year adoption from 2017 to 2020. During this period, the BSE’s efforts brought forth a considerable increase in the pass rate of Kanngwe Primary school from 47% in 2017 to 87% in 2019.
Efforts to assist Kanngwe included resourcing the schools with a multi-dimensional 4-in-1printer to assist the teachers in printing educational material for the students, warm winter school uniforms for all the students as many of the students travelled many kilometres from various settlements to ascertain education on a daily basis and in 2018, the BSE facilitated an educational trip by inviting the students, teachers, parents and members of the Village Development Committee to the BSE offices in Gaborone as a means of encouragement to the students.
Commenting on the adoption of Kareng and Metsimantsho, the BSE CEO Thapelo Tsheole had this to say, ‘Development of Botswana’s education system remains an important part of the growth agenda. Our role as the BSE is to work hand-in-hand with Government and other key stakeholders to shed light on the importance of promoting education in our society. As such, initiatives such as the ‘Adopt-a-School’ are indeed a breath of fresh air as the role of teaching takes centre stage through availing collaboration with institutions like the BSE to develop the delivery of quality education in our country and to better the lives of our youth and transform our nation into a knowledge-based economy that can pave the way for a better Botswana tomorrow. I am quite pleased with our selection process as both Kareng Primary School & Metsimantsho Primary School are located in very remote locations and require the utmost assistance to ensure that the highest form of education is delivered to the students. We look forward to forging a great relationship with both schools”.