Feature: Chinese company building first high school for Botswana's Tsabong area
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E-mail Xinhua, August 5, 2015
Botswana's Tsabong village is located at the country's most southwest corner and is more than 500 kilometers away from the capital city of Gaborone.
The capital of Kagalagadi District is featured with the desert land. Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park might be the most famous spot in the area. In the past, camel was a major transport used by local people.
Now, 20 Chinese from China's Zhong Gan Engineering and Construction Ltd are working together with about 420 Botswana employees in this remote area and building Tsabong's first senior secondary school. The number of local employees is expected to reach 550 as the project going on.
Tsabong Unified Secondary School Project designed and built by the Chinese company is to upgrade the existing Tsabong Junior Secondary School to a unified secondary school. The project includes outdoor facilities, 37 new buildings and others. The new school campus will be shared by Tsabong Junior Secondary School and the proposed high school.
The new school is expected to meet the needs of school authorities, parents and students, whom are also satisfied with the progress.
"The purpose of the new school is to reduce distance for students to travelling to other senior schools and bring development to Kgalagadi District. It will not only benefit the school but the whole district," said Segametsi Matlho, school head of the exsiting Tsabong Junior Secondary school.
Currently, students graduated from the junior school mainly go to Kang for senior secondary school, more than 400 kilometers away from Tsabong, as that is the only high school in the district.
"I'm very satisfied with the progress, Zhong Gan is doing a good job," she said, adding that the school has received a lot of assistance from the company, which is very friendly.
For instance, the company has helped the school to reinforce security. Security officers employed by the company not only look after the company's own site, but also look after the school, which helped the school having 24 hours security, said Matlho.
According to her, for many years this is the first project in the country that takes in students from the junior to the senior in the same school. The project will bring many new buildings, which are not in the junior school initially. The new school is expected to hold 1,500 students and will be international standard.
"The buildings they are constructing have impressed me, I can see they will be better than old ones in the junior school," said a student parent Kenosi Toto, who was touring at the site.
The 52-year-old parent is a farmer and her husband is a worker. "The school is going to be helpful for the community at large. The distance will be shortened, also for parents attending school meeting," she said, adding that she will send her child to the unified school after he graduates.
Because of lack of high schools in the area, one of her children who is in university went to Otse for high school, more than 480 kilometers to Tsabong.
"It was hard for me to send her child to Otse. I could only go to school once per term because of finance and distance. When he was ill, it was hard for me to go there," she said.
"My mother is living in Tsabong, she planed to take me to Gaborone, now she is very delighted. If she takes me to Gaborone, she won't be able to check me like here," said Bianca Esterhuizen, a form two student of Tsabong Junior Secondary School.
"As I can see how it is going to be done, it is far more better than the school which attended by my friends in other school," she added, "Wow, many people are going to Tsabong, population is going to increase rapidly!"
For the girl who likes animals and dreams to travel around the world and meet animals after she grows up, the new school will be a dream coming true. "Definitely I can start my dream with the new school, because we will have poultry houses and rabbit houses, goats, pigs..."
Besides the master plan and assistance to the local community, the Chinese company also pays attention to skills training. It is collaborating with Botswana Construction Industry Trust Fund (CITF) undertaking skills training. The project has also organized HIV test and related consultancy for workers.
"Zhong Gan provided me trainings like scaffold erecting, which have improved my skills, I'm happy with that. Through trainings, I have changed my stage from a labor to a trained man," said Edwin Selabe who has been working for Zhong Gan for seven years.
"I'm satisfied, but if I have any problems, I could talk with the site manager directly. So there was no problem working with Zhong Gan. I'm happy," he said. Selabe was leading a scaffold erecting team at the site. This is his fourth project with Zhong Gan.
To ensure that the project goes well, both Chinese and Batswana start working on the site as early as 7 a.m.. For Chinese workers who are not familiar with local environment, they have spent a lot of efforts to settle down. Tsabong's climate has been a challenge.
"At the beginning, many Chinese their face and lips were peeling," said Justin Peng, Project Manager of Tsabong Unified Secondary School Project. "The highest temperature in the summer can be 45 centigrade, while the lowest temperature in the winter can drop to minus 5 centigrade," he added.
"We are making efforts to train Botswana workers with skills, meanwhile we are implementing social responsibilities. We are also considering local community's other requests for help," said the manager, adding that the company hopes that through the project, it could achieve common development with Botswana people and local community. Enditem
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