Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) on 18th, 19th and 20th February 2008 presented certificates of recognition to schools in Gaborone and Tutume whose students had won prizes in the World Standards Day Essay competition hosted by BOBS in 2007.

The schools that received the certificates of recognition were Legae Academy for 1st Prize, Ledumang Senior Secondary School for 2nd Prize both in Gaborone and Tutume Mc Connel Senior Secondary School in Tutume for 3rd prize.

Legae Academy students paying attention

The Managing Director of BOBS, Dr Elsie Meintjies presented 1st prize to a deserving student, Ms Kamogelo Gaseitsewe of Legae Academy, on the 19th of February 2008. Addressing the students, BOBS Managing Director, explained to students during their morning assembly the role of standards in our daily lives and further said the World Standards Day essay competition of 2007, which was for Senior Secondary students, provided an opportunity for BOBS to gauge how much stakeholders know about issues related to quality and standardization and general services offered by BOBS. She further revealed that the theme which was “Standards and the Citizen: Contributing to Society” was appropriate as it is important for people to know the importance of standards.

Deputy Managing Director of BOBS, Mrs Masego Marobela, presented the 2nd prize to Ms Boma Eunice Brown a former student of Ledumang Senior Secondary School on 18th February 2008. She started by applauding the School Head for emphasizing the importance of time to students, and that indeed time is based on a standard. “Metrology – Science of Measurements” She said BOBS mandate is to develop standards and promote their implementation.. She said if they take heed of their School Head’s advises they will grow up to be time conscious and responsible citizens.

She went on to explain the theme for the 2007 World Standards Day and indicated that “A world without standards would soon grind to a halt. Transport and trade would seize up. The internet would simply not function. Hundreds of thousands of systems dependent on information and communication technologies falter or fail – from government and banking to healthcare, air traffic control, emergency services, disaster relief and even international diplomacy”.

Mrs Marobela announced that BOBS, as a national standards body responsible among other things to develop standards, has developed standards in the education sector, which were launched last year October during the World Standards Day commemoration. The standards launched on school uniform and stationery were: blazers, school jerseys, shirts, tunics, blouses, socks, pens, pencils, chalks etc and appealed to School Management, Parents and the Ministry of Education to use standards in their procurement processes.

The third prize winner was Ms Lorato Nchenje from Tutume Mc Connel Senior Secondary School in Tutume, near Francistown. The prize was presented by Ms Patricia Masemola, the BOBS Francistown Branch Manager.

Prizes which were won are as follows, 1st prize of P1000. to Kamogelo Gaseitsewe, 2nd prize, P500 to Eunice Boma and 3rd prize was P250 to Lorato Nchenje. In total 10 students participated in the essay competition and schools of the winners were awarded a certificate of recognition as they produced winners.