Zutshwa’s new library: Humdinger for change

A ray of hope dawned among one of the marginalised groups in the country when Vice President Ponatshego Kedikilwe officially opened a library at Zutshwa settlement, 100 kilometres from Hukuntsi. 

The P108 million-library built by Botswana Building Society attracted multitudes from the San settlement and its surroundings this week. The recipients, Letswai primary school students, were also over the moon as school performance show a rather poor record for the past five years, in its 15 years of existence. In 2012, the school recorded a pass rate of 7 percent, from 5 percent in 2011.

In 2010, the pass rate was 19 percent from 28 percent in 2009. Kedikilwe’s general message though, was equal opportunities for all as he urged residents to start seeing the light.

He challenged them to think outside Zutshwa and to begin embracing life from a wider perspective. The new library, he said, would help open up a wider horizon and show the residents, who are mostly illiterate, that life is bigger than where they live. “Education helps you get out of poverty through the use and application of the knowledge acquired,” he said, as he urged parents to show interest in their children’s studies.

He urged them to make their children hungry for education. In an interview, Parents Teachers Association chairperson Emmah Sennye lamented how parents in the settlement are poor role models for their children because they love alcohol too much. As a result the school records not less that five dropouts every year.
Another challenge is that the pupils prefer poaching over studies. She said they have on several occasions, gone to look for them at the bushes where they are often caught doing the illegal act. “They are not interested in formal education,” she said, however optimistic that the library will change their mindset. It is open to everybody in the settlement. Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Botlhogile Tshireletso further challenged parents to start coming to school to inquire on their children’s academic progress. 

The BBS had also brought stationery and school shoes for every student. School head Phatsimo Keaikitse said the library would be used efficiently as they had previously been visiting one in Hukuntsi. She said it would help them improve academically. BBS Board chairman Cross Kgosidiile revealed that they also fitted the library with furniture which can take up to 50 students at a time, with reading space outside, computers, a printer and a solar lighting to ensure that it is in use whenever required.

The building also has running water and ablution block and a librarian’s office. Efforts to connect Internet did not work due to lack of telephone services in the area. Standard 7 pupil Naledi Mokopi said she was looking forward to studying in the library, as she had no time at home. She performs household chores and looks after her younger siblings after schoiol.

“I will learn English more by reading books in the library,” she said, adding that she wants to become a nurse.