Veteran Matlama player leads education bursary

‘Ten-Ten Mashome’ student bursary joint venture launched

TEBOHO JAFETA

MASERU – Former Matlama FC player, Mathe Seholoholo, is at the helm of an educational promotion to help the best Top 10 students nationally to further their high school education – the project is dubbed ‘Ten-Ten Mashome.’

Seholoholo has partnered with private radio station, Bokamoso 974, and the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) through the Bokamoso MMS joint venture in which he is director.

‘Ten-Ten Mashome’ project was launched on Tuesday this week with Bokamoso providing M10 000 towards bursaries for Junior Certificate (JC) best performers.

“As I launch this ‘Ten-Ten Mashome’ promotion’s donation, I am reminded that the No 10 is special jersey number, and footballers know that it is not worn by just anybody…it is unique,” said the Principal Secretary in MoET, Dr Lira Khama. Khama said even though he launched the promotion, a lot of work will be done by Seholoholo and his team.

On his part, Seholoholo said the money raised would be diverted to JC students as the starting lot, while they will later on focus on relieving all the local premier league, A-Division and Super League clubs “since they have all been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

He said each district was expected to raise M500 000 from donation to be part of the ‘Ten-Ten Mashome’ drive.“The district that will fail to raise the specified amount will see its students not benefiting from this initiative, though I doubt there will be any that will fail to raise this amount,” said Seholoholo. He said donations were already being collected using Econet’s electronic system, Ecocash, for easy accountability.

“We expect to also use Vodacom-MPESA and PostBank’s Khetsi at a later stage; statistics on the donations will be announced on various media platforms,” Seholoholo further said. The Chief Education Officer for Secondary Education, ‘Mabakubung Seutloali, applauded Bokamoso for the initiative.

She observed that the cost of high school learning were higher than the costs of JC, saying that resulted to some students failing to complete the high school level. “We have already notified the students of this promotion before they start writing their examinations and told them to work hard so that they will enjoy this benefit,” said Seutloali.

“By Top 10 students in each district, we do not necessarily mean 10 students but we mean all students who will be graded in Top 10 by the Examinations Council of Lesotho.” Seutloali further said: “If a certain district fails to have 20 Top 10 students, they will each get a M10 000 bursary, and I wish them to be as many as possible.”