BNOC, BISA sign agreement
Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) and Botswana Integrated Sports Association (BISA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the Olympic Value Education Program (OVEP) at a media briefing held in Gaborone this week.
When giving a keynote address, BNOC President Colonel Botsang Tshenyego said they were exultant to witness this endeavour between BNOC and BISA. “BISA is a custodian of school sport in Botswana and an associate member of BNOC, this makes them a key partner in the delivery of Olympic Value Education Program (OVEP) because they already have teachers, students and other resources such as school grounds and other facilities,” he said.
According to Tshenyego, Olympic Value Education is a program intended to endow young people to become better citizens. “Currently, there is a lot of influence and pressure amongst our youth arising from social ills; we anticipate with this program which echoes very well with character building in schools, we can assist in curbing bad behaviour in schools and in communities at large,” He said.
BNOC President further noted that this program is a fun and engaging set of activities to draw kids into education. “The programme is not just about sports; it takes a broad, inclusive approach that include the Arts, Culture, Math, History, and Geography. It also introduces you to new ways of teaching more collaboratively, building new skills and experiencing value-based education,” said the BNOC President. For his part, BISA President, Joshua Gaotlhobogwe said, “The role of sport is not just about profiling us as a country but is also to help develop responsible and assertive young citizens who are empowered to make better and informed decisions concerning their lives in general.
Life does not have to end after a sporting career; we should have contributed to the development of our students in order for them to have a bright future in and outside sports. We should be delighted that they will someday contribute to the growth of our economy but first we must change our approach in order to achieve that dream,” said Gaotlhobogwe.
“Through OVEP there will be a lot of awareness on the benefit of sport to individuals and the society at large thus this will in turn make it easier to sell sport as career to our learners and their parents. Through this venture, our learners will meet their role models such as Isaac Makwala, Baboloki Thebe and Christine Botlogetswe just to mention a few,” he explained.
Speaking with BG Sport on the sidelines of the press briefing, BNOC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tuelo Serufho said education and sport build strong character, “The role of sport in our lives is tremendous because it helps better the society, hence this initiative (OVEP) which specifically targets certain individuals to lead their lives to the right direction. In light of this, we are a society with a lot of challenges; there are so many incidents that we always hear that young students have beaten up their teachers and sometimes get engaged in undesirable habits, so we are targeting to up skill them at a tender age,” he said.