10/06/2026
When Victor Baatweng joined the school magazine team at Gantsi Senior Secondary School, he could not have known that the experience would lay the foundation for a career that would eventually place him at the centre of Botswana’s business and economic conversations.
Like millions of Batswana who have passed through the country’s public education system, Baatweng’s journey began in a public school classroom. The buildings may not have been glamorous, and resources may not always have been abundant, but those classrooms provided something far more important: a place to learn, discover talent, build confidence, and imagine a future beyond one’s immediate circumstances.
The physical spaces where children learn matter. Classrooms are where curiosity is sparked, ambitions are formed, and futures begin to take shape. For Baatweng, the classrooms and learning environment at Gantsi Senior Secondary School became the setting where an early passion for communication and storytelling first emerged.
Those lessons extended beyond writing. They cultivated curiosity, critical thinking, discipline, and the confidence to engage with complex issues, qualities that would later prove essential in covering business, economics, and public policy.
Today, as a financial journalist and editor, Baatweng occupies a position of influence within Botswana’s media landscape. His work contributes to public understanding of economic matters at a time when informed debate is increasingly important for national development.
Yet he remains conscious of where the journey began.
For Baatweng, "public schools are not merely institutions that prepare students for examinations. They are spaces where potential is discovered and nurtured. They are environments where future journalists, doctors, teachers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and leaders first begin to imagine what they can become. Every classroom holds the possibility of a future innovator, policymaker, business leader, or nation-builder."
His journey from public school classrooms to the newsroom demonstrates what is possible when learners are given safe, functional, and inspiring environments in which to learn.
Strong school infrastructure does more than provide shelter; it creates the conditions for learning, creativity, confidence, and opportunity to flourish.
Every upgraded classroom, repaired window, door, and roof, functional library, science laboratory, and safe learning space is an investment in the future of Botswana. It is an investment in the next Victor Baatweng, whose talents may be waiting to be discovered in a classroom today.
Public schools built Botswana. Their continued renewal and modernisation will help build the Botswana of tomorrow.
