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Article History

Received: 28 January 2019

Accepted: 17 April 2019

First Online: 21 May 2019

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: All procedures were approved by the Botswana Ministry of Health Research and Development Committee (Protocol No. 00756), the MIT Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects (Ref No. 1408006559) and the Botswana Ministry of Education and Skills Development Department of Educational Planning and Research Services (Ref. DEPRS 7/1/5/XII(23). An initial PI on the project was based at MIT although the PI is not an author on the paper. All data analysts have a human subject certificate. Since both the intervention and survey were non-invasive in nature, the Ministry of Education provided a waiver to collect data with verbal informed consent from students and school administrators. Prior to data collection, surveyors made clear participation was voluntary and confidential. It was explained that consent was provided by voluntarily agreeing to fill in the relevant data forms. The IRB waived parental consent (Ref. DEPRS 7/1/5/XII(20)) due to the non-invasive and low-risk nature of the study and since surveys are administered as part of the school day. Assent was required of school management, which was obtained through regional school head sensitizations.

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: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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