26 May 2013

Rural Area Dwellers (RADs) hostels currently operate without any policy that guides their day to day running and general management.

This emerged during a one-day hostel management workshop held in Letlhakeng on May 23.

Stakeholders complained that lack of such a policy leads to poor links between hostels and schools.

Council secretary for Kweneng District Council, Mr Wadzha Tema advised  stakeholders that it is upon them to see to it that such a policy is formulated.

“I was not aware that there is lack of such a policy, and I wonder how these hostels have been managed for such a long time in the absence of such a policy,” he said.

Mr Tema said such a policy will assist in issues such as interrogating the eligibility of students to be admitted into the hostels and oil the working relationships between the matrons and the head teachers.

Currently there is no clear line of seniority between the matrons and the head teachers to the extent that it makes it difficult to share and manage resources such as vehicles and food.

The matron for Mantshwabisi RADs hostels, Ms Mpule Kgosiang said some of the major challenges they face is the late arrival of the boarding students when the school re-opens.

“This in most cases is because we have to hunt down the students, and some of them hide because they are reluctant to come back to school.

Most parents in the settlements that we service are nomadic, and sometimes we try and collect the students only to find that they have relocated from the area,” she said. She said this is because most parents in those areas, together with the students have not yet grasped the importance of education.

Ms Kgosiang also revealed that some challenges are a health risk, citing that in some instances they have discovered that the students share razor blades they use to shave their heads, which she said is very risky in this era of HIV and AIDS.

Other challenges cited were communicable diseases, vandalism, and lack of security at the hostels. It also emerged that some female students have also been discovered using mattresses because of lack of sanitary pads.

On the challenge of desertion, Mr Tema advised that the council should budget and make a provision for parents to be collected and spend a weekend with the students once in a while.

“We also have children, some of whom are tertiary-going age but we cannot spend a week without calling and checking on them.

Then how do we expect this children, some of them as young as seven years to be separated from their parents for so long and cope,” he asked.

He said such an arrangement may help curb desertion of the hostels.

 ENDS