Local institutions offer P3m in bursaries
Katlego Isaacs | Monday March 7, 2022 06:00
Officiating the announcement of this year’s tertiary road show on Tuesday, the chairperson of the Botswana Private Tertiary Education Institutions, Golekanye Setume said local tertiary institutions have come together to ease the government’s scholarship burden and make education more accessible. “There is now possible talk of government cost cutting through cost sharing between government and parents.
This obviously comes about due to the several complications the government has dealt with due to COVID-19 and against this backdrop we had to be proactive and strategic,” said Setume.
The proactive offering was declared to be 17 private scholarships across a range of courses to the value of P3 million offered by the 15 participating private tertiary institutions. Setume noted that the current number of available scholarships are not final and will continue to grow as the participating universities conclude their internal organising processes. As it currently stands, New Era College, Botho University, Mega Size College, Boitekanelo College, GUC, GIPS, and DDT have offered two scholarships each while Logan Business College offered three. The requirements and qualifications to apply for private sponsorship will depend on the institution.
However, these will be communicated over the course of the 2022 Tertiary Institutions National Roadshow. “This was done looking at the realities of the socio-economic situation of Botswana. Even if cost sharing is to be implemented in Botswana, a large number of parents will not be able to afford to take their children to school.” Setume reasoned.
In realisation of the financial difficulties that even the students whose parents can afford to take them to tertiary face, the road show will be conducted in partnership with Access Bank, formally Bank ABC. In an effort to warm the local market up to the newly rebranded bank, Access Bank will be offering free budgeting strategies for prospective and existing tertiary students.
Country head of retail banking, Grace Mankanku, stated that Access Bank would be a close partner with tertiary institutions by providing young people across Botswana a chance to learn how to effectively save their money to start the process of becoming fully independent. “It is through budgeting and financial planning, regardless of the scale, that one can form a healthy relationship with money. This is what we commonly refer to as financial literacy.” Mankanku advised.
To extend this budgeting service to more than just those who can participate in the road show, Access Bank has announced the delivery of an all new budgeting platform on their website designed to make it easy for students to spend every bit of money they have wisely. For those that do get a chance to participate in the road show, the bank will be offering students a chance to apply for their youth focused ‘Fresh Account’, the Fresh Account will provide students an affordable bank account that charges only P5 in monthly fees.
The roadshow will commence on March 7, 2022, starting in Palapye and Gantsi and work its way across the country until it ends in Gaborone at Rail Park Mall on April 7. All students that meet the minimum requirements of their desired tertiary institution are advised to arrive at their nearest roadshow venue at 9am with their result slip and copies of their Omang.